Mariposa
by ravenclawseekergirl638
Summary: Once again strange things are happening to our favourite hero. A creature inheritance, new friends, the prospect of finding a mate and discovering new allies will really make 6th year a year to remember. Warnings contained within.
1. Chapter 1

**Mariposa**

Harry hasn't been feeling very well all summer and now something is happening that will change his life forever. What has this year got in store for Harry and will he finally find a family to love and be loved by.

Warnings: Creature Harry, Harry/? Probable MALE PREGNANCY AU Definite Slash, m/m, m/m/m, gay pairings and gay relationships don't like don't read. Nothing explicit. Hermione and Ron bashing probably some Dumbledore bashing, brief mentioning of self harm, child abuse and suicidal thoughts, AU end of OOTP, AU sixth year. Flames will be used to keep the beverages warm for everyone else.

Wow that was longer than I thought it was going to be, obviously everything Harry Potter belongs to J. and the various companies that hold rights.

An: Yes I've been bitten by the bug too and this has become my baby. All I can do is to try my best.

Chapter 1

For weeks now Harry had been feeling very strange. There had been moments where Harry had found himself feeling faint and nauseous. The scruffy teenage boy held his stomach as it rolled at the smell of breakfast wafting through the doors of the Great Hall. He yawned tiredly bringing up his hand towards his mouth in a long learned gesture of etiquette. His Aunt and Uncle had ensured from a very young age that he knew his place within their household and that was on the bottom rung. He was to be seen and not heard. Anything that required his family to acknowledge his presence was to be apologized for in the politest manner. It ensured that whilst out of the house everyone thought that he was charming. Aunt Petunia told everyone she could that as both Dudley and Harry were boarding she wanted them to be as independent as possible. That was why Harry could be seen doing the weekly shopping in the local supermarket, going to the take-away, picking up parcels from the Post Office. No-one ever mentioned the fact that they had never seen Dudley do any of these things. After all Petunia Dursleys would never treat the two children in her care any differently.

He wasn't sure that he could make it into the hall and to the table where Ron and Hermione were eating without at the very least gagging. Especially if Ron was sporting his usual eating habits. That thing he did with chicken was beyond vile. In Harry's book there were no excuses for bad table manners. Ron often ate like he had received advance news of a ten year long famine. Some people would put that down to the fact that he came from a large family and that he probably had to eat fast to ensure that he actually got anything, but Harry knew that wasn't true. For one his siblings that were in school didn't have such appalling manners nor would Mrs. Weasley ever let any of her children go hungry. It was just the way that Ron was. Despite his strange and often vile eating habits they were firm friends. He yawned again repeating his earlier actions. As well as his other problems, he found himself managing to get less sleep each night. After living with the Dursley's all these years he had learned to cope without much sleep. If he thought back all of this had started after his 16th birthday. It was something to do with all the emotions that he was repressing, he was sure. Even after two weeks back at school and the entire summer holidays, he had yet to cry for Sirius. Maybe it was because deep down beneath all the layers that he put around himself, Harry found himself pretending that Sirius was on the run again and he would hear from him soon. Denial was a nice place to live but he couldn't stay there forever. Ignoring all of this and pushing on with his life seemed to be the best option for the moment though. It wasn't as if he had the time to do anything else.

Gradually the feeling of nausea faded away and he made his way over to the Gryffindor tables. Because of his hesitance at the door the space that Hermione had been trying to save further down the table had been taken by one of the new first years. Harry found himself at somewhat of a loss. Over the last five years even during their falling out the 'Golden Trio' as they had been named had always sat together. Harry bit his lip shifting his weight from one foot to the other looking at the spaces that were left. There was no way on earth that he was sitting next to Cormack McLaggan. Especially after the introduction that he was the new Quidditch captain. Arrogance rolled off that guy in waves. To his luck Dean saved him by grabbing his hand and dragging him over to where he Seamus and Neville were sitting. Harry blushed as everyone at the table turned to look at him. He was gently guided into a seat and he proceeded to pick at his breakfast. There was little that appealed to him. Why was half of the table taken up by meat and dairy dishes? Slowly he piled all the fruit he could find onto his plate.

"Are you alright Harry you look really pale?" Seamus asked concernedly turning in his seat, a half eaten piece of toast in his hands.

"I'm fine! I've just been feeling a bit funny lately." Harry replied, holding a goblet full of iced pumpkin juice to his forehead as a hot feeling came over him.

"You should probably get yourself looked over by Madame Pomfrey." Dean added, reaching over to add another helping of muesli to his bowl. Despite his upbringing where he had been taught to hide any illnesses or injuries to avoid them being exploited it felt good to open up to people. Leaving or hiding something generally only made it worse in the long run. Harry didn't have the energy to argue. Listlessly he ate the little fruit he had managed to acquire from the table that wasn't coated in sugar syrup, before saying goodbye to his dorm mates and heading towards the infirmary. The tiny sixth year had barely made it halfway there when he collapsed.

A/n The pairings are currently undecided i would like to see what you would like.


	2. Chapter 2

A/N: Thanks to everyone who has added the story to thier favourites and alerts. Special thanks to my one reviewer. :)

Chapter 2

It was very abnormal for Harry to be late to his lessons. He was usually a very punctual and polite boy. So when both Ron and Hermione turned up to Herbology without their once firm friend. Professor Sprout was worried. Even though they had once been the closest set of friends that she had ever seen, there had been a big row that had split them apart. It had probably been something to do with the blossoming romantic relationship between Ron and Hermione leaving Harry feeling like a third wheel. Harry had gone on to make some new friends and to strengthen the ties between himself and those who had previously been friendly acquaintances. Upon questioning them about Harry's whereabouts she learned that they hadn't seen him since breakfast. Broadening her question out to the rest of the class she learned from Seamus and Dean (some of these newer friends) that he hadn't been feeling very well and that they had suggested that he should head over to the infirmary. At this statement Professor Sprout had raised an eyebrow it was school policy that if a member of staff intended to keep a student into their next lesson time they had to inform that staff member of this fact. This was done either by sending a message through other trustworthy students, floo or by patronus. It was vital in a school this size as it meant that the whereabouts of all children could be known. Poppy would have floo'd her anyway to tell her if Harry was too ill to attend her lesson. But she had heard nothing. This boded ill. The professor set off her class, leaving Neville (her star pupil) in charge as she headed to the fireplace located in her office that was attached to the greenhouses. As she entered the room she made a note to do some cleaning. It was so easy for things to get on top of her during the school year. What with the plants to tend to, papers to grade and her duties as head of house there was little time for anything else. Once she reached the small stone fireplace and added the floo powder the flames turned emerald green.

"Poppy's office!" Pomona called whilst placing her head into the flames. Her back and knees clicked and once again it reminded her not only was she not as young as she once was but that she would probably need to add some sort of cushion to her next shopping list to preserve her knees. It wasn't long before Poppy answered her floo call. So early in the school year there were few patients in her infirmary. Instead of the green flames that had been in front of her changed to an image of her friend's concerned face.

"Hello Pomona. Not to be rude but to what do I owe the pleasure of this call?" Poppy asked her face creased with worry. It was very unusual for any of the staff to contact each other during lesson time unless there had been an accident.

"Is Harry Potter with you Poppy? He hasn't turned up for my lesson. Mr. Finnegan and Mr. Thomas have told me that he wasn't feeling very well. I thought he might have come to see you." Pomona asked shifting her weight from one knee to the others they started to protest at their treatment. The Matron's face grew even more worried. She knew that Harry was the sort of person that kept things to himself for as long as possible. Therefore it was likely that he was more ill than he had admitted to being.

"No he's not here." She said. "Nor have I seen him at all today. I know that you have a class so I'll go look for him." Pomona thanked her before they both pulled out of the floo.

Hogwarts' Matron was a woman who had managed to keep both Severus Snape and Sirius Black confined to a bed. Therefore she was not someone that was to be crossed. Poppy prided herself in knowing all her patients to some degree. For example Severus would ignore and avoid her for as long as possible until he was so ill that he couldn't fight her off anymore. Harry was much the same as Severus he refused to come in to see her about something if he believed that it was a minor affliction. She counted herself lucky that he knew when something was serious and did in fact come to see her. Now she just had to find him. The infirmary was practically empty and the few patients that were there would be able to look after themselves for the few minutes it would take to contact the portraits. Her shoes made an echoing noise in the empty corridor as she made her way towards the portrait of Hypocrites that hung just round the corner of the Hospital Wing. There weren't any portraits within the infirmary due to their propensity for gossip.

"Sir if you wouldn't mind, would you ask the other portraits if they have seen Harry Potter? He's ill and should have been to see me by now." Poppy asked, brushing her apron down as flat as possible. Hypocrites left his frame and it was some time before he returned... The healer was beginning to become anxious it shouldn't have taken this long. Almost every room corridor and staircase was covered by a portrait. It was how the staff managed to keep an eye on the children that were at the school. It was also why Albus seemed so all knowing. When Hypocrites walked back into his frame he looked worried.

"Marcus saw him shortly after breakfast and he turned the corner but Brigit has no recollection of seeing him. Therefore something must have happened to him in-between the two."

"Could you send the message to Severus and Minerva I think that their free at the moment?" Poppy called as she set off at a pace that showed she meant business. Her skirts were gathered in her left hand to ensure that she wouldn't trip. Marcus and Brigit's portraits were on the third floor in an area that included a sharp bend in which it was impossible for either of the portraits to see anything occurring. It was amazing that if Harry had collapsed that none of the students had seen him After all he had gone missing shortly after breakfast that morning. That was one of the times in which the school was at its busiest. Sure this particular corridor wasn't the most popular of routes but it was frequently used. Poppy wrung her hands she hoped beyond hope that none of the students were callous enough to leave Harry in there and not tell anyone. It took some time for her to reach it as for some reason all the staircases seemed to be working against her today. She waved to Brigit before turning the corner.

It was brightly lit and therefore it was easy to see that there was nothing there. Poppy was stumped how could Harry have gotten round either of the two portraits? Suddenly she became aware of a quiet creaking noise and jerked her head up in the direction that it seemed to be coming from. She stifled a scream.

**A/N: Dont forget that i'd like to hear, who you would like Harry to be pared with.**


	3. Chapter 3

A/N: I am amazed at the reviews the last chapter recieved! Thank you to all of you who reviewed and to those of you who added the story to your alert list and favourites. 

Chapter 3

Above her head attached to the high ceiling was...well she wasn't quite sure what it was. The sound of running footsteps became louder as the person/s drew closer to her position. In the back of her mind she was barely able to register the fact that Severus and Minerva had obviously received her message before they were standing next to her looking up at the object. Minerva clasped a hand to her mouth and Severus swore. If it were any other setting the school Matron would have reprimanded the surly Potions Master but at the moment it felt like a truly appropriate response to the situation.

"What is that?" Minerva asked shrilly. "And where is Harry?"

"That Minerva is a chrysalis and if I'm not mistaken inside it is your dear Mister Potter." Severus sneered before turning back to make his way down to the dungeons. Poppy grabbed him by the shoulder spinning him back to face her.

"Voldermort is gone Severus, there is no need for this front anymore. I know for a fact that you wouldn't hold the boy's paternity over him. Sure James Potter was a bully but you gave back just as good as you got if not more when you where in school!" The diminutive healer lectured waving her free fist at him, whilst Minerva scowled. As a teacher you were not supposed to have a favorite student but Harry had touched a lot of people's hearts over the years that he had attended the school. For Poppy it was extremely hard for her to see him in the Hospital Wing as often during the years as he was. There was a particular bed that she had named 'Harry's bed' at least internally. Only one other bed that had this honor and that was the one frequented by poor Remus Lupin during his time in school.

The sneer slowly dropped from his face leaving an agitated expression in its place. There was no apology of course there never was one and Poppy was not naive enough to expect him to. If there was one thing that she was sure about Severus Snape it was that he was a very proud man. After all the situations he had been through were the need for his masks was absolute, she allowed him a little lee way. Without them he would have been dead over a decade ago. Now he had problems with the fact that he often returned to them automatically, in defense. They could forgive him these minor slip ups.

"What do you mean that's Harry and why is he in a chrysalis?" Minerva shrieked she always was very protective of her lions and Harry was one of her 'favorites'. They could both sympathize with her, there was no way this was an ordinary everyday situation. Severus rolled his eyes.

"It's obvious that this is some kind of creature transformation." Once again Harry had found a way to defy the laws of the magical world. The vast majority of creature inheritances happened after the individual's coming of age at seventeen. The exceptions to this rule usually manifested in the first year after birth, for example full blood Veela. The less blood a person had the later it tended to manifest. Vampires and Werewolves were also an exception as they tended to 'turn' within the first year after they were bitten. At this point they were born into their society. Due to this it was very rare for someone to enter their creature inheritance before their seventeenth birthday. One taking place before this date usually meant that the individual was old beyond their years, in danger, suffering some kind of emotional distress, or their mate/s were in trouble. The school provided tests to students in their sixth year during lessons that began after Christmas. These tests showed the creature blood that ran through their bones listing them in a way that placed the ones the individual was most likely to inherit first and any others were written beneath it. The lessons were compulsory so even those who didn't have a looming inheritance could learn about the different creatures that inhabited the magical world. It also helped to alleviate the fear that the students went through by covering what they should expect to happen to them during the change as well as other topics such as finding a mate and male pregnancy.

"A chrysalis is most unusual. We'll have to close this corridor off to the students, so that they don't disturb him or damage the cocoon around it." Severus added before beginning to cast spells that would protect Harry's transformation. Basic shielding charms came first to prevent the structure of the actual chrysalis from being damaged, therefore possibly hurting Harry. At this point the others had joined in adding their own protections and charms to the area around Harry. Cleaning the area to prevent infection and warding it so that no students could enter. The last most complex being the specific warding that would alert both Poppy and Severus to any significant fluxuations to the environment and to Harry. The cocoon around the chrysalis was a grey brown colour, camouflaging almost perfectly into the stone wall, despite this the shadow thrown by it was much more obvious.

"I'm off to the library to find out what Harry is." Severus called as he left in a flurry of billowing robes. Leaving Minerva and Poppy speechless.

* * *

><p>At lunchtime the Headmaster pulled the 6th year Gryffindor dorm into the room that was usually only used during the time before the first years were sorted. Dean Seamus and Neville were all beside themselves with worry as Harry had yet to appear in any of their lessons and no one had heard from him. The headmaster didn't keep them long before informing them that Harry had been found and that he was getting through some sort of creature inheritance. At this Hermione tried to interrupt but Dumbledore only winked at her infuriatingly before continuing. "We think that Sirius' death and the emotional backlash that Harry has experienced is the cause of him going in to this a year early." Some final reassurances were given that they would all be informed when Harry re-emerged before they were ushered out to attend their afternoon lessons.<p>

Dean, Neville and Seamus were not happy with this explanation. There was no doubt in their mind that the Headmaster was downplaying the importance of what was happening to Harry. Neville coming from a powerful old family, knew that creature inheritances were less common now, than they had been a hundred years ago. Also all inheritances happened on an individuals sixteenth birthday unless something seriously bad had happened. If Harry had been upset enough by the death of his Godfather for his creature to believe that he needed to enter the changing process, surely the headmaster would have kept him at school over the holidays to monitor him. Most creatures changed in a very short period of time as it was at this point that they were at their most vulnerable.

The way that the headmaster had said re-emerged had unsettled all three of them and they shared their knowledge of creatures. It lead to a detailed conversation in which they decided to head to the library in order to try and find out what Harry was. Hopefully they would be able to get their before Granger, Harry wouldn't want his old friends to know what was going on. Especially, if he had seen the look on Ron's face when he had been informed of the fact that Harry had been through a creature inheritance. The Prewett family had always prided itself on being the purest of purebloods and it seemed that Molly had attempted to instill those views in her children. One of the most controversial ones being that creatures were not as intelligent as wizards and that they shouldn't have the same rights as everyone else. It could be seen in the way that she treated her oldest son's girlfriend Fleur Delacour. She was a Veela and a creature that the vast majority of the female wizarding population hated due to their allure ability. It seemed that so far only Ron was responding to his mother's racism.

Now they just had to find Luna and the twins, inform them of the plight of their friend and get researching, They were a motley crew but Harry had a habit of collecting people that were on the outside of normal society and giving them a place where they could be themselves.

Their was no doubt that by the end of the day everyone would know that Harry Potter was going through a creature inheritance after all no-one could keep a secret in Hogwarts. They just wondered how long it would take before the media got hold of it.


	4. Chapter 4

A/n: 9 Reviews, 14 Favourites and 28 alerts. XD It's finally here the chapter you've been waiting for! I did tell someone that it would be further away, but *flail* i suck at remembering about my own story...

Chapter 4

A week later the temperature within the cocoon began to raise sharply giving Professor Snape the final facts he needed to pinpoint what Harry was. In the hidden section of the library that was only accessible by the schools staff members was kept the Encyclopedia of All Creatures. It was a vital piece of equipment in a school of Hogwarts' size with students from such diverse backgrounds. Especially within the last century as world travel had become more and more accessible to muggles. Rare and exotic creature inheritances were becoming yearly occurrences. In such cases the book was a Godsend helping them to prepare the individual and prepare to meet new needs. Severus carried this most precious of items into the emergency staff meeting that had been called. Not knowing Harry's species had set everyone on edge. In a normal situation they would have been made aware of the student's species, all the changes and provisions that would have to make and when the change was to be expected. All in all they would have been prepared and would have had a plan of action ready. With Harry they currently had nothing hence the meeting being called. All the staff sat in the larger of the four staff rooms includingFirenzeand Sybil Trelawney. Both rarely seen by the rest of the faculty. The headmaster had called onPomona, Poppy, Minerva and Severus to give their account of what they had experienced. Before turning to Severus so that he could enlighten them on the information that he had managed to gather.

"I was unsure until the temperature spike within the chrysalis this morning as to which species Harry belongs to as there are many creatures which transform in this manner. The most common of these is the insectoid family. Harry I'm glad to say is none of these but rather a much rarer one. "At this point the rest of the staff was sat on the edges of their seats fidgeting impatiently waiting for the final name to be said. Filius even managed to fall off his seat an action which left Severus rolling his eyes yet again. Being overdramatic was something that Filius was known for. "One that has not resided within the castle since the founders' time." Severus grinned evilly as he dragged the situation out for as long as possible.

"For Merlin's sake you infernal man yet on with it!" Minerva shouted her hands clasping the arms of her chair turning white and a vein throbbing in her neck. Albus looked at her scandalized. "Alright, alright woman! Keep your hair on. Harry is some kind of Faerie. We won't know until he emerges exactly which kind he is." Then all hell broke loose.

It took some time for the room to become silent again as each teacher fought to have their views heard. As the room finally calmed down Poppy lifted the Encyclopedia and turned to the page that covered Harry's species. Minerva pulled out or dictating quill and a long roll of parchment setting them on the small glass coffee table before returning to her seat.

**_The Encyclopedia of All Creatures_**

**_Self Updating for School Use_**

**_By Astrid the Willful, Chief Witch of the Council of Creatures. 1082AD_**

**_Page 7501 Faerie_**

**_Within this category are many further sub categories. In this section I shall describe the general attributes that are seen in Faerie._**

**_Physiological differences from humans_**

**_Fae are in any aspects alike to butterflies and moths in both appearance, _****_behaviour_****_ and habits. _**

**_All Fae have wings though these vary in size_****_ colour_****_ shape and retractability. All wings are similar to those of butterflies in texture and patterning. British Native Faeries tend to have brown, green and grey wings which help to camouflage them within their home environment, though other_****_ colour_****_ variations are known to exist such as reds, yellows and oranges. Those from warmer climates are usually distinguished by their brighter colours and more flamboyant patterning._**

**_Females are usually the average height for human females, though many are much smaller. All females have long pointed ears much like centaurs that are many times more sensitive than the human ear and are used as a way of determining if there is a threat to the nest. Instead of the two canine teeth there are an extra set of pre-molar teeth as their diet is strictly vegetarian. The teeth of Fae females have evolved so that they constantly grow as otherwise they would be worn down very quickly. The two incisor teeth are fangs, rather like a Doxy that produce non toxic venom that if a non Faerie is bitten will cause them to enter a coma. If another Fae is bitten, it merely causes them to feel a calming effect. Other than this when the wings are retracted the female will look pretty much like a human female. _**

**_Submissive males are much shorter than the average height for a human male averaging between 4ft11 and 5ft 4. As with females they have the extended pointed ears, but these are shorter and only slightly longer than a human ear. A submissive male has an omnivorous diet and so retains his canine teeth, but also has the altered incisors. The wing span of this gender of Faerie tends to be much smaller than that of both the female and the dominant male/male. The cause for this is unknown. Due to their ability to conceive and give birth, the male has a wider set of hips to allow the eggs to pass through and obviously has the possession of a womb and ovaries. _**

**_Dominant males/males are always over six feet in height and therefore dwarf their mates. They are omnivores though eat a diet that contains much more meat than the submissive male. This means that they have evolved so that their first set of premolars has been replaced with a secondary set of canines to help them rip through meat. Instead of the fangs that the female and male have dominant males/males have a set of talons that extend from their fingers and toes when they sense danger._**

**_The changing process_**

**_This usually occurs on the individuals seventeenth birthday, though as Faerie are much more likely to be affected by negative circumstances that create strong emotions (see weaknesses) it also commonly occurs before this date. The first stages of the changing process can include the individual feeling, nauseous, lack of appetite, increased appetite, cold and hot flushes, insomnia and tiredness. In the second stage the individual will become dizzy as well as their temperature becoming hotter and hotter, before they collapse. Whilst unconscious they will shred the clothing they are wearing and begin to weave a cocoon using saliva to stick it together. Once within the cocoon the outer layer of skin hardens in order to protect them. Within both of these they will stay until the change has occurred. Whilst within the chrysalis the individual will undergo many different physiological changes. This includes any internal organ changes, skeletal growth and the development of the wings. The changing process usually lasts between five days and two weeks. After this period of time has passed the individual will then emerge from the chrysalis. At this stage they will be very disorientated and covered in a thin layer of sweat and mucus. It is important that they be guided onto a stool or chair to wait until their wings have fully dried and hardened otherwise they may become stuck together and need specialized help to separate them without causing significant damage. _**

**_Diet_**

**_The diet of the three groups is mentioned in part earlier on in this section of the book. All Faerie prefer fresh healthy food and will usually refuse to eat foods that are particularly high in sugar, fat and salt. During pregnancy the amount of sugar that a female/male submissive consumes will increase significantly depending on the size of the clutch. This is due to the extra calories that they need in order to create the eggs. An increase in calcium intake is also to be expected as more calcium is needed to make the shell coating. _**

**_Mates, reproduction and pregnancy_**

**_As in many other creatures there are female and male pairings though unlike these this is the rarer kind. Most Faerie mates are compromised of a male submissive capable of pregnancy and a male dominant. Faerie pregnancies are very short lasting between four and eight weeks before the young are laid in the form of eggs. These are then incubated alternately by both the submissive and all mates. This allows the parents the ability to sleep, eat and carry out any other necessities, whist maintaining the high temperature of the nest. _**

**_To Faeries, courtship of a potential mate is very complex and is considered to be a sacred act. Female Faeries emit a pheromone that attracts males over a large distance, males on the other hand having a much shorter range. Nests are built by dominants during the courting process and are filled/complied with items that the dominant thinks that the submissive would like. If there is more than one other Fae courting the sub/female the quality of the nest and its contents will be used as a strong deciding factor in distinguishing the two. For example if the sub/ female feels that one of the dominants has put more effort into creating their nest, or that their nest shows that they know their likes and dislikes more it will put them in higher favor. A high quality nest does not need to contain expensive items! Nests can be made of a variety of materials including moss, twigs, leaves, dried flowers, fabrics and clothing. If a pair of faerie believe that their nest maybe in danger they will construct a dense web of warding and shielding spells in order to protect themselves and any hatchlings they may have. Nests are always built at height in order to protect the family from predators. Other mating rituals include both sides giving gifts to one another, the male/dominant showing off their skills and talents in order to woo the other and spending time with one another. When a mate has been accepted the amount of time before the bond is _****_consummated_****_ is completely in the control of the partners involved. The consummation of the bond can take hours or even days. _**

**_It is very unlikely that a Faerie female/submissive will become pregnant within the first year of their first mating as they require a completely stable and safe environment in which to bring p their children. If the individual feels that the hatchlings would be at risk then none will be conceived. The first clutch that an individual conceives is always small between one and three eggs. This is thought to be to reduce the level of stress on the first time parents. If there is more than one dominant male/male the children will likely be a mix of all the parents, though some clutches may only represent the sub/female and one of the mates. As said previously pregnancies usually last between four and eight weeks and the young are 'born' in egg form before hatching. The _****_colour_****_ of the eggs denotes the colour that their wings will be after they change. _**

**_Children_**

**_The time it takes for a baby Faerie to hatch is dependant on a number of things; these are the temperature of the nest and their position in it. If the nest is not kept at a temperature above fourteen degrees Celsius they will not hatch at all. In order to hatch the baby uses a special egg tooth to gnaw their way through the shell, this will then fall out within the next two days. The children resemble humans until they change. Despite this Faerie children often develop their ability to use magic both consciously and unconsciously much earlier than human children. _**

**_Additional Powers_**

**_All Faerie have the ability to use non verbal and wand less magic that is undetectable by the ministry. This skill is developed during childhood and depending on the strength of the individual can account for a large proportion of the magic that they do in everyday life. In some Fae, this type of magic is instinctual and comes to their aid in situations where they are at significant risk. _**

**_Weaknesses_**

**_Faerie are often considered to bring bad luck as they tend to attract trouble and danger to themselves and others around them in their unmated form. As a result of this they have been hunted nearly to extinction by both the magical and muggle community. The extreme fall in numbers has led to faerie withdrawing from both world and living predominantly in large family groups. This behavior is seen in many creatures that wizard kind believe to be dangerous, examples being werewolves, daemons etc. Behaviors such as this, allow the family to protect one another and also allows children to be brought up in a safe environment. _**

**_Faeries are very sensitive to temperature, if it falls below fourteen degrees Celsius; they enter a dormant, hibernation state in which they exist on their fat reserves until the temperature rises again. It is vital that an individual is only in this state for a very short amount of time, especially if they do not have sufficient fat reserves as they can die. _**

The pen finally came to a stop right at the very end of the scroll of parchment and the staff ruminated on the information that they had learned. All in all it wasn't something that they couldn't get round. There were plenty of other creatures that they had had to deal with, where it was harder to meet their needs. Creatures such as Veela, Vampires and Werewolves had significant needs as well as safety issues that also needed to be planned around. Other creatures went through periods of heat were they would be compelled to couple with their mate/s often for an extended period of time. Many males and dominant males were very possessive and protective of their partners, their wrath often legendary to any who slighted or hurt them. Harry's future was certain to be very different from the life that would be expected of him, but they were certain that it would be positive. One of the worries that were presented was the fact that there was no known Faerie currently at the school, making it unlikely that Harry would find his mate/s. Despite this it also made their lives a lot easier in regards to the measures that they would have to put in place. A great deal of discussion occurred between the faculty about the issues brought up. In the end it was decided that various new foods would have to be added to them Gryffindor menu and that Harry would have private lessons with Professor Snape in regards to his creature inheritance. Despite the complex and sometimes fraught relationship between Harry and Snape, he was the most knowledgeable in regards to creature inheritances and routinely privately tutored and counseled those with rarer ones. All that was left was to wait and see whether Harry was a dominant male, a submissive male or the rarer heterosexual male.


	5. Chapter 5

a/n: Here is the next chapter, i hope you enjoy it :)

Chapter 5

When Harry slowly returned to consciousness he remembered enough about his experience to expect to be in 'his' bed in the hospital wing surrounded by the white walls and with Madame Pomfrey not too far away. Unfortunately for him it was not to be so. As he opened his eyes he found himself looking at soft diffused light penetrating the tiny gaps of a substance. As he struggled, his nails punctured holes in the dead skin of the outer casing. Seeing this Harry dragged them as hard as possible over his face and body, desperately trying to get out. Eventually he managed to remove the skin over his face allowing him to breathe once again. The air was hot and thick only marginally helping him regain his wits. As more consciousness entered him he began to struggle, feeling claustrophobic and confused. Harry madly twisted back and forth breath coming in harsh pants as he struggled to free himself, from what he felt was a thick duvet cover filled with slime. He couldn't breathe again, probably running short on air. Eventually in his panic, his fingers found woven fibers and his nails scraped at them until a small hole was made. Air streamed into his lungs and he half retched, coughing and spluttering, unconsciously clearing mucus from his lungs. The weight of himself in the cocoon caused the small hole, which had weakened the structure, to slowly rip wider. His eyes which had become used to the soft diffused glow of light that had filtered through the cocoon, where momentarily blinded by the fresh morning light that was streaming through the corridor. Now being able to breathe uninterrupted by dead skin and mucus he began to rake his sharp nails all over his body removing the chrysalis. Without ceremony the hole ripped down the entire side of the material, and would have caused him to fall if Madame Pomfrey hadn't already cast a suspension charm around the area in case this was to occur. Both adults raced towards Harry, who was shaking, no doubt the air temperature out in the corridor was much cooler than that of the inside of the chrysalis, as well as this the teenage boy was covered head to toe in slime, which helped to increase the rate at which his body heat was being leeched from him. Severus performed a modified cleaning charm. One, that allowed him to guide the charms cleaning powers in certain directions, therefore allowing him to ensure that Harry's wings were avoided. As the newly emerged Faerie had yet to open them, therefore allowing them to dry and harden, they were incredibly fragile. Any damage to them now would cause Harry inexorable pain; damage that occurred in the time after they had hardened could be healed. Poppy slowly lowered Potter into a chair which she had brought with her on the advice from Astrid the willful, casting a heating charm. After all they didn't want the poor boy to have to add hypothermia to his list of experiences. Harry was facing the back of the chair, allowing him the space in which to stretch out his wings.

Harry groaned, his head feeling like it was full of cotton wool and half solidified jelly. He was vaguely aware of the fact that he had not fallen the six feet to the stone floor, but had in fact been caught. That then had to mean that there were others around him somewhere. He growled, showing long fangs dripping with venom. It took several minutes before he was aware of whom it was that was with him. He blushed deeply, ducking his head down so the two adults couldn't see.

"I'm sorry Professor Snape, Madame Pomfrey, I didn't mean it!" Harry whispered in a voice that was barely loud enough for the other two to hear. Severus rolled his eyes and sighed before bending down to inspect the wings of the teenage boy. It was something that was instinctual after all and both had been subjected to worse reactions to their presence over the years.

"It is imperative that you follow my instructions mister Potter. I know that you are probably very confused and even a little scared at the moment, but this is important." Snape said softly before touching him on the shoulder. This then caused Harry to flinch slightly as he hadn't noticed how close Snape was to him. Despite the fact that Snape had obviously been a spy during the war, there was still a lot of bad blood between them. If it wasn't for the times where he had saved Harry's life, he didn't think that they would ever be able to have a civil relationship. So in a way Harry trusted the snarky potions master. "Use the muscles in your back and push out with them, like you would if you were rolling your back." It was a strange sensation to do so rather like peeling a wet sock off your foot only being able to feel the sensation from the socks point of view as well. He knew that if he was in a normal state he would be questioning things a lot more, even freaking out a little, but all he could think about was falling into the nearest bed. After a few moments spent blinking rapidly trying to keep himself awake, the teenager realized with a start that he wasn't wearing his rather ugly signature glasses. Cautiously he brought up a hand to his face as if to check that they were in fact not on his face. Madame Pomfrey smiled at him, finishing her wrapping of a thick blanket round his lower waist. At this he blushed scarlet. How long had he been sitting here starkers.

Poppy smiled at her third most frequent patient of all time. Only the Weasley twins who refused to be seen as separate entities and Remus Lupin were in here more often that poor Harry. The lad was incredibly accident prone and could trip over a blade of grass. The two of them had christened the bed that he usually used as Harry's bed, and they had joked about getting a plaque to go here after he had left. The matron added a localized sticking charm to the blanket so that it would not unravel until she could get him to the Hospital Wing into some Pyjamas and then into bed. There was no doubt in her mind that he needed the extra sleep maintaining the temperature needed throughout the changing process and the adaptations to his body had took weight from him that he could ill afford to lose. She peeked over his shoulder to see Severus kneeled down behind him watching the progress of his wings unfolding. It seemed to be a long and strenuous business, though Harry showed little of it on his face. He seemed to be almost completely tuckered out. Poppy was sure that as soon as he was laid down he would be out for the count.

Severus could feel his knees slowly going numb, although in both the muggle and wizarding world he was considered to be still quite young. He was going to regret his later on in the day. In the background he could hear the general kafuffle that the children made as they went from one class to another. The wings were slowly parting in front of his eyes and he was ensuring that Potter didn't pull them too quickly possibly damaging them. So far they were doing fine. Another ten minutes passed by before they were fully open and he patted the young student on the back awkwardly before whispering that he could stop now and that he had done a good job. The mop of messy black hair turned to face him a look of bewilderment on his face and those eyes: Lily's eyes bored straight though into him. The potions master shook his head and rose once again to his feet, though stiffly due to his extended period of kneeling on an unforgiving surface. He was sure that this boy and his promise to a dearly loved and departed friend, all those years ago would be the death of him someday. Harry was a child that could get himself into all sorts of situations. It wasn't long before the wings had dried fully, changing from an indigo hue to varying shades of blue and gray, marking Harry as a British native Faerie and one of the rarer heather ones. In the natural environment that Harry would no doubt have been born into centuries ago such colouring would have been vital in aiding camouflage. There was nothing about Harry that didn't lend its self to then rare and mysterious. This last effort (that had been vital in opening his wings) had knocked him out cold and slowly he slid forward, resting his head on the back rest of the chair. In his sleep the wings slowly retracted into his back. At this Severus raised an eyebrow, almost every other winged creature had to learn to retract their wings, in some cases this could take weeks to do depending on the amount of creature blood within their DNA and their personal temperament. In the case of Harpy although it seemed to be instinctual it could cause the individual a lot of pain as every time they were called forward they ripped through the flesh causing significant amounts of blood to be lost Severus then came to the conclusion that it must be instinctual, as the Faerie's wings were so much more delicate than those of the Veela and Harpies. There was, obviously now he thought about it, a much higher risk to the thin gossamer than there was to bone skin and feather.

The two staff members levitated the worn out Harry Potter onto a medi-stretcher that Poppy had made out of the chair, before heading back towards the nearest fire. The chaos in the corridors had subsided meaning that all the students were back in their lessons. Poppy made sure that Harry was covered properly before they stepped beyond the boundaries of the wards to maintain what was left of the boy's dignity. Their eyes met over the top of the stretcher and for Severus it was clear to see that they had both noticed the changes that were visible on the exterior of his boys. The much wider hips were something that neither of them could miss after all.


	6. Chapter 6

A/N: Another chapter for you on Armistace day.

Chapter 6

It was some time before Harry was awake again. This time he found himself more 'with it' and for the first time (of probably many more) in the year lying in 'his' bed in the Hospital Wing of the castle. He had no idea of the amount of time that had passed, though looking out of the window he could see that the sun had begun to set leaving a deep orangey-red glow over the grounds. That had to mean that it was after dinner time at the very least. What had happened earlier in the day felt like a rather strange dream, though some parts he was sure could be constituted as a nightmare. His breathing hitched at the memory of not being able to breathe. When he was younger, he had frequent nightmares of his uncle suffocating him. It was one of the very few things that he hadn't done but that hadn't stopped him threatening to do it. After all it was also one of the few things that would always make the freak cry. Whenever she came Aunt Marge would make comments about him being a runt and how the family should have drowned him as soon as they had found him on the doorstep. It would after all have saved them a lot of money. At times such as this Harry found it very hard to keep control of his magic and in some cases had lost the tenuous control of what others called accidental magic. In the summer after his second year at school Harry had lost his control in a big way resulting in his aunt blowing up like a balloon and being found floating around the countryside hours later. That had earned him one and only beating of his life before he managed to escape the house and go on the run for that small period of time. There were plenty of times were he found himself wishing that they had drowned him so that he could be with his mummy and daddy in heaven. But even in times such as those, he wasn't sure, that he deserved to be there, with them. After all he was a useless freak no one would want him. Not even God, if there really was one. Harry doubted it, there were very few people that could believe in a omniscient, omnipotent and benevolent God after all that he had seen in his fifteen years.

Hitting him hadn't been his relative's way of doing things. It was much more their style to ignore him, make him perform slave labour for them, refuse him food and to torment him. Why should they spare the food that was for their actual family with a runty freak that had caused the death of his parents after all? There was no way that Petunia was going to let her little Duddikins go hungry. Over the years Harry had watched his cousin get fatter and fatter despite the fact that for the past two years he was supposed to be on a diet. Dudley could get away with anything in the Dursley household, because his parents thought that he was an angel that could do no wrong. Boy, were they in for a shock if he kept going down the path he was currently. There would be no need to lie about having an offender in the family. Coming into the wizarding world had been a shock for Harry, he had spent the first eleven years of his life being told that he was a worthless waste of space and then his world had been flipped upside down. He hadn't known until Hogwarts how bad the situation back at Privet Drive was. He hadn't known any different. Sure year after year it had gotten worse and worse, but it had done so incrementally. Slowly over long periods of time, it was hard to notice changes.

As usual Madame Pomfrey was never far away from her patients and soon the flowered curtain around his bed was pulled back as she entered with another person. After both had entered the space around the bed she turned to draw it closed once again. The small space made him feel calmer than he would have out in the main Infirmary ward, after all nothing had ever happened to him in his cupboard. Despite this he could feel his chest tightening slowly and his breathing quicken. He still had no idea why he was here. Sure earlier on he had felt a little unwell but… Harry was able to see the two of them quite clearly which was worrying as he was not wearing his trademark glasses. Maybe the matron had found a potion or spell that was able to fix his terrible eyesight. The fact that she had brought Snape into see him as well seemed to be propping his potion theory up rather nicely until it was popped by what they had come in to talk to him about.

"Good evening Mister Potter!" Snape started, pulling a chair towards him and sitting himself within it, as Madame Pomfrey sat down on the end of the bed, checking a clipboard filled with different coloured wavy lines. She frowned deeply before turning to face him. What was going on? It was obvious that something serious had happened due to the expressions on their faces. It gave him a feeling of foreboding, a feeling that the rest of his life would be changed forever. In the back of his mind he was terrified that they had found out his long kept deepest darkest secret that no-one was allowed to know. The way that they were boxing him in wasn't helping in the slightest either; there was no easy escape route that he could use to get out. Even if he did manage to make it out of the curtained off area and out into the main ward, they were two adult wizards and he was bone weary. It was a lost cause.

There was a long awkward silence and Harry found himself slowly pulling the bed clothes over his face in an effort to prolong it, therefore increasing the time before the conversation they seemed so eager to have with him began.

"Harry! Come on dear there's no need for this!" Madame Pomfrey stated firmly taking hold of the blankets and pulling them back down off his face before smoothing them out once again. Severus rolled his eyes once again; it looked like this was starting to become a habit. It was one that he would have to rid himself of if he was to escape the notice of Minerva. That woman was full of old sayings, she would probably say something like 'if you're not careful you'll do it once too many times and they'll fall out the back of your head'. There was only so much he could take after all he was but a mere mortal.

"There are a number of things which we must talk to you about. It is very important that you listen carefully." Severus leaned forward in the chair, staring deeply into Harry's eyes.

He hadn't thought that it was possible to feel more uncomfortable but with Snape staring at him Harry began to squirm. By now he should be used to people staring at him. It was something that after all, happens everyday when he is in the magical world. "Harry do you have any idea of the events of the past couple of weeks?" At this Harry both relaxed and felt his level of panic rise. They didn't know about the Dursleys, but something bad had to have happened if Snape was treating him this nicely. It was probably Voldermort or something had happened to Neville, Seamus or Dean, maybe to all of them. He whimpered. Maybe he had been so focused on how ill he was feeling that he had missed something important. It was just like him to be so selfish. Harry looked up from where he had been staring into his lap, to find both Madame Pomfrey and Professor Snape looking at him in a way that he couldn't decipher. "As it seems that you are unaware of what has happened. We wish to ask you a few questions Harry." This sentence spoken by his potions professor caught Harry's attention just as Severus had planned it to. Never before in the teenage boy's memory could he recall having been called by his first name by this teacher. Since the fall of Voldermort at the Ministry Snape had become less snarky than before and favored his own house a little less. Dean even swore that he had seen him help a tiny first year Hufflepuff girl to pick up the contents of her bag that had split. Harry wasn't yet ready to believe that.

Madame Pomfrey turned the page on her clipboard to one that contained lined paper and Snape Pulled out a notebook. Now he felt like a potions experiment.

"How have you been feeling lately Harry?" That wasn't a question that he had expected the Matron to ask. "Be honest it's important that we know!" She added, poising her pen to write down what he had to say. So once again he didn't have a choice they were both staring at him waiting for him to answer and Snape had already started writing some things down. What could there possibly be to write about, he leaned to one side of the bed in an effort to see what the bat of the dungeons was saying about him. No matter how far he leaned over he couldn't see, the notebook was angled in such a way that Madame Pomfrey could see it but not he. He probably had some terrible rare disease that was going to kill him and they wanted to document it for posterity. At this Harry smiled and decided telling the truth for once about his health would be a good thing to do.

"I've been feeling really nauseous and not really eating." At this both nodded and began to scribble down things onto the paper. "Oh and I've been going hot and cold for a couple of days." He added as an after thought, before twisting his hands in the bed sheets to distract himself. He had always been a fidgety person. "I think that I fainted earlier in the corridor on the way to come here." At this Madame Pomfrey smiled she knew that he hated coming here but that he knew when it was important to.

"I'm very glad that you did try to get here Harry, but you know that you should have come at least as soon as you started to feel the hot and cold flushes as you know that could have meant that you had a serious fever." She paused in her writing to smooth the blankets around him, one of her many ways of showing affection. "You fainted in a corridor halfway here, a little over a week ago." At this Harry raised an eyebrow in disbelief surely he had only been out a little while. Though being out so long would ensure that the Matron would want such an in-depth talk with him, despite this it didn't explain why Snape was there. A tightening feeling began to happen in the muscles in his back, it was an uncomfortable tickling sensation that made him reach up with his hands to find out what was tickling him. Once his fingers reached a bump just below his shoulder blades that had a soft almost feathery feeling he started.

Professor Snape stood up from his chair walked over to the bed and pulled Harry's arms back round to the front of his body.

"I suggest that you desist such behaviour before you permanently damage yourself." Snape growled before letting go of Harry's hands watching as they dropped to lay against the woolen blankets. "I suppose that we must now move on to the subject that we are here to discuss Mr. Potter." He had gone back to calling him Mr. Potter and if that wasn't a bad sign Harry was a hippogriff. A look passed between the two adults that Harry could only just identify as concern. He wished that they would just get to the point he was sick of worrying what the hell they were trying to tell him. Also what was wrong with his back. "Harry you went through a creature inheritance this past week and spent the vast majority of it inside a cocoon." The teenager could only manage to get out a high pitched noise of confusion despite his determination to question the pair as to what they were talking about. It made it sound like he had been a caterpillar that had turned into a butterfly. Humans couldn't do that, but then again things often happened to him that people thought were impossible. It wouldn't surprise him as much as it should that something really weird had happened. "It seems that somewhere in your family there was a Faerie and that you have inherited the genes that have made you, after the completion of the changing a submissive Faerie."

What did that even mean?


	7. Chapter 7

A/n Once again i wantto say th\nk you yo you all for the amazing response to the story, 25 trviews 22 favourites and 59 people have added the story to their alert list. 

Chapter 7

Faeries were a mythical creature and the only ones that Harry had seen were the ones that were used as fairy lights in the magical community. He most certainly hadn't shrunk to be smaller than a thimble, nor was he glowing. Feeling his back once again despite Snape's death glare, he couldn't feel any wings. Yes he definitely didn't have wings. Then probably as the fates way of spiting him, his wings emerged and he fell of the bed in shock. He really was a freak who else had wings sticking out of their back? The matron rushed forward to help him back up but he shrugged off her hands, curled up into a ball and began to cry.

No one would want him now, he would lose all the friends that he still had and he would never have a family.

Poppy wrung her hands not knowing what to do as Harry lay there in the foetal position, wings spread and crying his little heart out. The poor thing went through enough as it was, without having to cope with his life being turned upside down. At least he didn't have to worry about Voldermort trying to kill him now. Severus looked just as uncomfortable. Maybe it would be for the best to let Harry cry himself out before informing him of the rest of the information that he would need. She opened the curtain enough to leave in order to get to her office where she kept all her medication. They would probably need a calming draught before the end of all of this. Why she hadn't just collected one earlier, when Harry was still unconscious only God knew? From a pocket in her apron Poppy withdrew a handkerchief which she used to wipe the few tears that had escaped her eyes. Harry would be alright he always was and she knew from experience that sometimes a good cry could do a world of wonders. That boy kept way too much bottled up inside.

Severus was at a loss about what to do with the distraught teen. If this was how bad he was taking his creature inheritance, he shuddered to think what Harry was going to do when he realized that as a submissive he could get pregnant. The potions professor couldn't remember how he found himself on his knees stroking the back of Harry Potter whispering comforting words to him, but regardless of all the bad blood there was between them that was where he was. At the moment he was telling himself it was merely because of the promise that he had made all those years ago to protect the boy, but Harry had grown on him over the years. No one could have remained untouched by the scene in front of him. Harry began to rhythmically bang his head against the stone floor sobbing quietly. Whatever was going on in the boys head obviously wasn't doing him any good. Despite Severus trying to talk him out of it, convince him that this was not going to help him. In the end it became obvious that Harry wasn't going to stop of his own will or talk about what he was thinking, wrestling the boy into a sitting position on his lap to prevent him doing any serious damage to himself, became the only option. It was not an easy job! Despite being very underweight he had a lot of fight in him. The wings were flapping frantically, but not with any sense of finesse, merely causing a large draught that was making the flowered privacy curtains billow. All that Severus could do was hold tight and hope that Poppy would be back soon with the calming draught that she had went out for. He didn't have to wait long.

As Poppy returned she could see the curtain billowing and quickened her pace. The scene that met her on her arrival was that of semi-organized chaos. She could see Severus holding tightly to Harry as he was thrashing about, wings flapping uncoordinatedly. Before she had even began to get her breath back, after all she wasn't getting any younger, Poppy had uncorked the vial of calming potion and was kneeling on the floor next to Harry and Severus. As Harry opened his mouth again to wail pitifully, the vial was placed at his lips, his head tilted back and his nose held in a vice like grip. It didn't take long for him to realize that the only way that he was going to breathe was if he swallowed what was in his mouth. The potion didn't take long to begin to work, slowly Harry's efforts to escape the grasp of a concerned Severus grew weaker and they were able to lift him back onto the bed. Poppy moved forward to take his pulse, pressing two fingers against his radial artery, she could feel that it was still raised. Her years of medical knowledge warned her that extensive exposure to these panic attacks would be bad for Harry's heart. Luckily the potion would give them the time to talk to Harry about what being a Submissive Faerie meant, before it wore off. The pair of them tucked the scruffy teenage boy into the blankets once again. Harry's treatment plan was going to be complex.

"As you know this means that you have wings that mean that after some training you'll be capable of free flight." Severus started the conversation as they took up their previous places, it was obvious that he was trying to engage Harry in the conversation by using one of his favourite past times. It didn't seem to be working, green eyes stared at the curtain that surrounded the bed on three sides. "There are other things that have also occurred to your body one of them is that at some point when your older and have found your mate/life partner you'll be able to carry your own children." There was still no reaction.

* * *

><p>Harry was tired and whatever potion he had been forced to take made him feel strange. It was like he was outside of his body as well as in it and everything seemed to be happening much slower than it did before. When professor Snape told Harry that he would be able to fly without a broom he was interested flying was one of his favourite hobbies, but he couldn't find the energy to put together a response. By the time he had decided that he wanted to ask his professor when, he could have some flying lessons, the conversation had moved on. Across from him the school nurse was once again writing on the paper no doubt documenting his earlier breakdown and the medication that they had used to get him out of it. He didn't really understand what they had meant about the matelife partner thing and he was sure that what he was being told was that he could get pregnant. Surely the potions master had gone slightly crazy Harry wasn't a girl, he was a boy, always had been. What if the creature inheritance had turned him into a girl? He could see that he didn't have boobs and well as far as he could tell downstairs was perfectly normal too. Maybe they had mixed up his medical notes with someone else. He wanted children, he didn't deny that, but why did he once again have to be weird?


	8. Chapter 8

A/n Thanks once again to all of my wonderful reviewers and all of you that have added the story to your favourites and alert lists. Here is the next chapter for you all. 

Chapter 8

The library was filled with many different books on creature inheritances, but they didn't have enough knowledge about Harry to determine what his creature was. There were just too many different types, the only ones, which they had been able to dismiss, were those that needed to be directly inherited from either one or both parents. It was one of the few free periods that they all had together and was usually when they had their group conversations or helped each other with homework. Neville knew that it had to be something rare as almost all creature inheritances were the result of a dominant gene rather than a recessive one. Despite this as far as they knew no-one in the last ten generations of the Potter side of the family had any creature blood. That was as much research as they could do at the moment without any more information.

The table on which the six of them sat was piled high with various different books some of them ancient tomes covered in dust and filled with yellowing pages, others new publications with animated pictures and diagrams and glossy covers. They could barely see each other over the towerong piles. Luna sat backwards on her chair, legs through the gaps in the armrests with her wand behind her ear an unusual look of deep concentration on her face. Seamus was sitting on Dean's knee at the end of the table on one of the more substantial chairs, both flipping through a red book with scowls on their faces. The twins sat on a bench at the other end each reading a book by Newt Scamander. Neville sighed finally finishing a completely useless book and despite wanting to throw it across the room, placing it gently on the top of his growing pile. It had been filled with pretty bigoted opinions on male veela and he found himself running a hand over his face. The book had been written over four hundred and sixty years ago and had as well as being pretty racist had also been incredibly homophobic. He winced it had most certainly not made pleasant reading, someone who was straight would have had trouble reading it. But to someone who was part of the LGBT community it had been almost physically painful to read some of the more…shall we say less P.C. material contained within. It was a good thing that neither Seamus nor Dean had read it. Both were a little sensitive about their blossoming relationship. Apparently neither of their parents had taken it all too well, that their sons were going out with each other. Nothing that their parents had to say had been able to make them break up, but it had still left a mark upon them. In Neville's opinion it was pathetic to hate someone purely because of their sexuality. Pureblood families tended to contain a large proportion of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people. There was that and the fact that there were many things one could do to have children, despite the sex of either partner that meant the wizarding world as a whole was very tolerant place. Neville's grandmother's parents had both been male. If they had lived in the muggle world at the same time, their relationship would have been illegal.  
>They were all frustrated beyond belief by the time that dinner rolled around. Luna encouraged them all to take a break, have something to eat and get some fresh air. Maybe it would help to clear their heads and help them to focus once again. When they arrived at the great hall everything seemed to be continuing as normal as if there wasn't someone missing. Usually the crowd would be jostling each other and craning their necks to see Harry the Boy-Who-Lived and Saviour of the wizarding world. It unnerved Harry to have so many people staring at him, especially those individual's, whose support could fail at the drop of a hat. Once through the doors they parted from Luna and headed towards the Gryffindor table where it was obvious that Harry wasn't there. The end of the table where they usually sat to have meals together was empty. It seemed that wherever Harry was he hadn't been allowed down to dinner. Neville bit his lip, it was becoming a nervous habit. For now it seemed that the Griffondor gossips had managed to hold their tongues.<p>

After dinner which they had all rushed through if they were honest with themselves they headed to a favorite courtyard that they had found at the end of last year, it was somewhere that they had found for Harry. It was one of the few places that he had no memories of being with Ron and Hermione, such memories were bittersweet. It was somewhere the group of misfits could all be themselves without having to wonder what everyone else had to say about it. Everyone in the group was accepted for who they were and loved for their differences. As Luna had once said 'Who want to be normal? Normal is boring.' The late September weather meant that they had to wear their heavy woolen winter cloaks, to keep out the chill which had started to creep into the air. All around them the trees had begun to shed their leaves leaving crunchy piles in the sheltered corners around the castle. By the Herbology glasshouses a group of first year Hufflepuffs were piling the leaves up and jumping into them. Luna smiled and waved to them, but as usual she was ignored, of course by now she was used to such behaviours from others. This was after all better than what she had used to go through. Now that she had the protection of the rest of the group no-one in Ravenclaw tower had even tried to steal her things this year.

Upon reaching their special courtyard they all found seats after brushing crisp orange and red leaves from the stone benches. Worried looks passed between them, a hesitance to speak was obvious in all. Harry was their best friend and no one was telling them what was wrong with him. Sure they had been given a short and practically pointless explanation, but that was meant to placate them. There was plenty that the Headmaster was keeping from them and the rest of the school. That old man had a plethora of things that he was keeping from the wizarding public as a whole in a misguided attempt to keep them from harm. That could be seen last year with his ignoring of Harry and keeping the prophecy from him for so many years. If there was one thing that Harry hated it was being lied to.

"There is no chance of us finding out what Harry is without more information." George stated opening his bag and pulling out a piece of parchment and a self inking quill. The others nodded, Dean and Seamus paling. "We all know Harry's luck and I'm betting that he has something rare and probably never seen before."

"I agree! It's time to make a plan." Seamus said shifting in his seat; stone benches were freezing on your bum.

The group spent the remaining time before lessons began again creating their plan to find Harry and help him in any way that they could. In the end it was decided that Fred and George would step up their pranking to distract the teachers in an effort to get them to divulge more information. Luna would go to her head of house, pretend that she had heard nothing about the situation and start crying. Flitwick was hopeless with crying female students and hopefully Luna's problems in school and her concern for one of her few friends who she thought had gone missing would add more weight. Dean, Seamus and Neville would go to Professor McGonagall and demand more information, if that didn't work the twins would supply them with Weasley's patented Fever Fudge and Vomiting Caramels (newly developed this summer). Pomfrey would think that they were ill as a result of worrying about Harry. Now all they needed was the time in which to implement their plans.

Both Severus and Poppy left the shell shocked teenage boy to his thoughts, closing the privacy curtain once again and setting an alarm to warn them if Harry started self harming again. It would be some time before the calming potion wore of but with that boy one could never be too careful, When they finally reached the sanctuary of the office the pair collapsed into two green striped stuffed armchairs. At this rate Harry was going to cause him to go prematurely grey. Why had he made that promise to Lily and Dumbledore? He wasn't sure why he was doing this and was trying to convince himself that it wasn't out of the goodness of his heart. He was a heartless callous bastard, the Slytherin bat of the dungeons, ex-death eater and spy extraordinaire. With one look he could make a Hufflepuff cry like their pet had just died. But that barely sixteen year old son of (really if he was honest with himself) his first and for a very long time only friend had gotten under his skin. During his wool gathering Poppy had pulled out Harry's file from a locked filing cabinet to which they were the only key holders. It wouldn't do to have others snooping through the confidential medical records of the students and teachers. Not even Dumbledore had clearance to see them without the individual's permission or that of their parent/guardian. There was no doubt that, that little fact annoyed the man. Albus was the sort of man who wanted to know everything about everyone, but wouldn't give out anywhere near the same amount of information to others. The healer who had been on staff before Poppy had been perfectly willing to let the Headmaster rifle through them at his leisure, compromising various acts of legislation and her oaths as a healer. In a way she was lucky that she had been forced into early retirement before she had been found out, otherwise she could have been facing up to fifteen years in Azkaban. Not something to be sniffed at. Albus had a stranglehold on the British wizarding world. After defeating Grindelwald all those years ago he had become a household name and a celebrity overnight. Everyone from the minister of magic downwards had seen him as the ultimate leader of the light. In the beginning this had unsettled the man but now he basked in it. If there was a law that he didn't want passed, it wouldn't be, if he didn't like someone he could ensure that they never work again. In many ways he was more dangerous than Voldermort had ever been.

A/n: Hope you enjoyed :)


	9. Chapter 9

A/n: Chapter nine is here! And the plot thickens.,,

Chapter 9

Harry's medical file was unusually thick, but considering the fact that he had a knack for getting into dangerous situations and that he was somewhat clumsy probably had a lot to do with it. Due to the nature of Harry's creature inheritance, they were insuring that there weren't any medical problems that had slipped past their eye over the years. After all there were over four hundred people within the school and they were the only personnel within it, with any medical knowledge beyond first aid. Severus needed such skills due to the often dangerous things that could happen in the potions lab. It could sometimes become very hectic in the infirmary and there was only so much they could find out if someone was being uncooperative with them. You couldn't force someone to tell you the truth, well at least not a child. Harry was the sort of child that preferred to do look after himself and would only seek medical help if he knew something wouldn't get better without it. That boy was incredibly stubborn, but then so were both of his parents. Maybe it was a genetic thing. The very first check up, which was in the file, was in his first week at the school in his first year, where his head of house had practically had to drag him down, coughing his head off. The way that he was shaking like a leaf and the fact that the chest infection had been there for some time before school had even started, had worried the two women. In fact, the chest infection hadn't received any muggle treatment at all, almost beginning to develop into Pleurisy. From there Harry could have developed double pneumonia if that had gone untreated. At this point, it said in the notes the matron had given Harry a pepper up potion, and a decongestant antibiotic potion before performing a lung soothing spell to reduce the irritation caused by the swelling of the inner lining of the lungs. In the action of breathing this swollen inner layer rubbed against a thicker outer layer and caused even more pain, which had meant that Harry was taking very shallow breaths at points lips bluing, due to lack of oxygen. She had then gone on to add an urgent note, asking the permission of the headmaster to perform a full body scan on Harry to ensure that there weren't any other illnesses the boy was harboring. After all Dumbledore was hia magical guardian. This request had been denied and she had been told that Harry had just forgotten to bring the antibiotics that he had been prescribed by a muggle doctor. It had been pushed under the rug and the healer told in no uncertain terms to leave it alone. At this Severus raised a dark eyebrow but continued reading, there were many stays in the hospital for Quidditch injuries, encounters with Voldermort and even from a burn caused by one of those cursed blast-ended-skrewts. After looking through the entirety of the folder Severus had come across a number of very alarming facts. Whenever Harry had been surface scanned by Poppy, a procedure to look at current illnesses and injuries, the results were almost identical. The differences were blaringly obvious, those of course showing a broken bone from tripping on the moving stairs or the damage to skin tissues caused by a burn, but it was the vital background information that was causing him to worry. Catching the eye of the school matron he pulled out a number of cases from the file spreading them out on the rickety oaken desk that stood in the corner of the small room. It was here that medications were measured out and reports on each child's health completed, whenever needed.

Madame Pomfrey could see that the potions master had found something; she knitted her brows in thought. What could they have missed? Resignedly she hauled herself out of the chair and made her way over to the youngest potions master in a century. Severus was certainly no fool and knowing Harry as she did, Poppy shuddered there was very little that ever went well in that boys life. Within her chest the frantic tattoo of her heart was distracting, fear rising further and further in her throat as each beat passed. Nervously, she placed her own pile of papers next to those that were on the desk before looking up. Severus stood awkwardly, one leg crossed in front of the other, shifting his weight slowly left to right, with his hands folded tightly across his chest. That he was uncomfortable was easy to see, she startled, it had been a long time since Severus had been this open with her.

"Poppy would you prefer to read them yourself, or for me to tell you what I have found within them?" His face was tense and unease, maybe even distress coloured his tone.

"I trust that what you say is true Severus." Poppy ran a hand nervously through her graying hair, managing to dislodge some of the hairpins she used to keep it out of her face and also out of people's wounds. Doing such was one of the very first lessons that you learned in healer training.

"If you look very carefully at the results of Mr. Potter's scans, you can see something pretty alarming." As he stated this Severus pulled several charts from their purple box on the dark wooden shelf that ran the length of the room. He opened them to the pages relevant for an eleven year old boy and then pointed in turn to the results of the five scans. " The first scan is exactly the same as the average line on all the results, his weight, vitamin and mineral levels, blood pressure, bone density etc. That in of its self is suspicious I find. Surely you remember how small he was in first year?"

Poppy nodded she well remembered how small the boy had been. Most of the staff had found it hard to believe that he was in fact eleven. Both Lily and James hadn't been particularly tall but they had been at least average height as adults. Due to this it had been a shock for them all to see the boy when he arrived.

"On each of the other tests which were performed over the last four years, the levels are exactly the same as that of his first year exam." Severus turned away from her for a moment, plotting the results of all the tests on a graph. There were no fluxuations in the results, which was something that couldn't happen, especially over such a long period of time. What was going on? The general scan that she used on all patients who entered into her domain covered many different markers of health. The levels of nutrients and minerals within the body changed from hour to hour as the body used them; they were not something that could be stored by it, unlike fat. This was why muggle sailors going on long voyages used to get scurvy from a lack of Vitamin C. According to the information Harry had neither put on nor lost weight through his entire time at Hogwarts, despite the fact, that he had grown a good four inches in that time. Regardless of this it didn't look as if the scruffy teenage boy would ever achieve average height. There had always been something about Harry that had concerned her, but the headmaster had pushed her concerns aside every time she raised them. It made the school matron angry to think of it now. Every year Harry came to school looking decidedly ill and the amount of accidents that he had increased towards the end of the school year. Harry was a boy, who it was hard to look directly in the eyes. Whenever you tried to meet the green orbs so reminiscent of his mothers, your eyes would slide from his face and now and again you would swear that it blurred. She smacked a hot clammy hand to her forehead causing Severus to start, how she could have not seen it before? The boy was wearing a glamour.

"Severus, Harry's wearing a glamour!" Poppy moaned stalking back to her seat and all but throwing herself into it. Sure the Infirmary was a busy place at the best of times, but how… her mind was fixated on this. There was barely a month in which Harry wasn't in her domain for some reason or another. How many times had she seen him over the years and not noticed the glamour? How had the people who saw him on a daily basis not noticed it? A rustling noise from behind her caught her attention; the potions master was rubbing his hand across his face, the vast sleeve of his robes to slipping down his arm, revealing a long expanse of porcelain white flesh. He really needed to get out in the sun more, he was probably suffering from Vitamin D deficiency. Poppy made a note to check for that later. "What we have to find out now is why."

A/n: Don't forget to review :)


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10

It was nearing the end of the day; dinner was beginning to be served in the great hall, many floors below them. Madame Pomfrey had left the small office in order to distribute medication to the patients that were in her care before discharging everyone but Harry. Severus had also left claiming that someone had to clean up the corridor that Harry's creature inheritance had occurred in. No-one needed as comprehensive care as he did at the moment. In some cases she probably should have let the student go earlier but the events of the past twenty four hours had distracted her. Anthony Goldstein's broken leg had been fixed in an instant, but she had wanted him to stay a little longer as it was the seventh time that he had broken it in relatively the same place. Poppy had wanted to ensure that he didn't have any significant bone problems. The poor boy was in here so often he was almost rivaling the Weasley twins with the number of his stays. As of yet there was no-one who could hold a candle to Harry Potter's stays here, Poppy thanked Merlin for that, she didn't know whether her heart could stand another.

Once the ward was empty and she returned her paperwork to the secure filing cabinet before heading back out again to see Harry. Before retiring tonight she would be sure to place the relevant information into each students file. During the time Severus and her had discussed the various abnormalities of Harry's charts and the glamour he seemed to be wearing, the alarm that had been set to tell them if Harry needed medical assistance or had started harming again, hadn't gone off. The Matron wasn't sure if this was a good thing or not. Sure the fact that Harry wasn't harming was a good thing, but it also meant that he was probably bottling all his emotions up again as he was want to do. Doing so wasn't much healthier than the self harming itself. There was a saying in the muggle world, 'sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me', at a later point someone else had changed it to 'sticks and stones may break my bones but words will break my heart'. To Madame Pomfrey the second version was the more accurate, physical issues could almost always be healed, but the things that others say to us and what we say to ourselves can stay with us throughout our lives. Harry, it was safe to say was without doubt the biggest of his critics. At times if you took the effort to, it was possible to see him beating himself up on the inside. Whenever she caught him doing so the Matron attempted to draw him out of it.

Poppy shook herself there was one more thing to sort out before she could let Harry have his dinner. He must be starving by now, after being in that chrysalis for over a week. Usually she would have had a meal on hand as soon as he woke up but the excitement of the day had driven it clear out of her mind. The business of the glamour that Harry was wearing and whatever was under it had to come first. If it weren't for the fact that the charm could be hiding something that was/could be endangering the stubborn Gryffindor boy, she would have let the subject drop until tomorrow. Harry had been through a lot today as it was. Part of her was still waiting for the legendary temper that he had inherited from his mother to rear its head. Once the facts about his creature inheritance had sunk in and the staff had had a chance to fully explain to him what was going on, including why he had changed now and not on his seventeenth birthday, she was sure Harry would have a lot to say. No doubt he would also have something to say about the fact that they hadn't noticed the glamour till today, when it seemed that he had been wearing it at the very least since his second year if not his first. As anyone would be, she was worried about what could be being hidden. Maybe Harry's relatives were all that she had feared that they had been that first year, when Harry had been brought in with a severe chest infection. She had complained then to the Headmaster, but he had brushed her off as he had done on subsequent issues with other children that were in her care. No doubt if she were to inform the Headmaster of the fact that Harry was wearing this unusual high powered glamour he would state something about Harry being a teenage boy and it probably being used to cover a spot or something. Over the years the relationship between the staff members and the headmaster had slowly become more and more frosty. For someone who said that he didn't want to have power, the man had a lot of high ranking positions in the wizarding world. Only a couple of days ago, Sinistra the astronomy teacher had expressed a worry about the amount of time the man was spending outside of the school.

There was also the possibility that Harry had been self harming and that the incident earlier on in the day, hadn't been the first. Her heart would break if it was so, surely they had as close a relationship as was professional and Harry would allow. Did he not trust her as she had come to believe? No matter the reason the conversation that she was about to have was not going to be easy on either of them. Sub-consciously she patted the large pocket in the front of her robes where she had placed another calming potion which she was prepared to administer if necessary. Hopefully it wouldn't come to that, especially after how strongly Harry had reacted to the first. If it was needed half a dose would probably be better. Her soft shoes made quiet slapping noises on the flag stones; here in the infirmary they were heated in order to prevent the patients becoming more ill than they currently were. It had been one of the better ideas the founders had, had when creating the castle. As she neared the curtained off area where Harry was, she strained her hearing to catch anything that was going on inside, but despite this no discernable sound was being made. Her footsteps became louder the closer that she came; it would do her no good to startle him.

Slowly Madame Pomfrey drew back the curtain, to find Harry lying down on the small bed on his left side, twisting the corner of the bed sheet in his hands. The pajamas that had been spelled upon him by Severus the moment that they had brought him in, hung off him. They hadn't had the chance to use a shrinking charm to make them fit properly since then. Both had thought that this size would be the right one for the boy, it was the smallest size that she kept, but still they were too big. She would have to sort them out later this conversation was more important.

"Harry," Tentatively she called his name, after a few moments the large green eyes fixed upon her face and she walked fully into the small 'room'. The seat that Severus had occupied earlier was still in its original place in the corner, half facing towards the teenage boy. Making sure not to crease the heavy skirt of her dress and the back of her robes, the matron flattened them behind her after pulling the clipboard with Harry's notes upon it from its place at the foot of the bed. "I need to talk to you about something that Professor Snape and I have noticed. Can you tell me why you're wearing a glamour?"

* * *

><p>Once both Madame Pomfrey and Professor Snape had left him alone Harry began to get angry with himself. The calming potion had begun to wear off and he was disgusted with the way that he had, had completely lost control of himself. The last time he had cried was when he was four and Aunt Petunia had forced him out into the garden in his pajamas in the middle of January with no shoes on, before locking the door and leaving him out there. At the time there had been a good six inches of lying snow on the ground. Apparently he had woken her up by crying after a nightmare that he had had. Aunt Petunia hated being woken up, if you disturbed her before she got her nine hours sleep, she was vicious. He had kept as warm as he could by sleeping in the old garden shed, which his Uncle had forgotten to lock. It was a place where the family shoved anything that they didn't want cluttering up the house. To Harry's luck there had been some rolls of insulation in there left over from when Uncle Vernon had, had some builders in to fix something in the loft. That had really looking back at it, been one of the scariest moments of his life. Four year old Harry had been sure that he would be turned into a snowman by the cold. The shed had also been a blessing in that his cries had gone unnoticed by his family. By the time that morning had come round Harry had been half frozen and lucky to not have hypothermia. After that incident which he had no wishes of ever repeating, he had decided to keep things inside himself. That way he wouldn't bother others and they couldn't use his emotions against him.<p>

He had been alone for some time now and the potion had fully worn off, he no longer felt the strange fuzzy feeling that accompanied the more useful aspects of the calming draught. Whatever was going on in his life wasn't helping. The problems in his life did have a habit of piling up on top of him. From the very moment that he had stepped into the wizarding world people had begun to pile their hopes and expectations onto him. Many of the teachers here had taught his parents and despite the fact that he could see them holding back, they were constantly comparing him to them. It was hard, both Lily and James had been geniuses in their own fields, charms and transfiguration, Harry couldn't think of anything that he was particularly good at, except not dying. It seemed as if he had been here for days by the time that Madame Pomfrey returned to see him. Harry hoped with all his heart that there wasn't anything else that they were deciding to spring on him. His mind had been battered with enough information as it was today. According to both his potions professor and the healer who had sat in the previously unoccupied seat, he was no longer human, had wings and could apparently defy the laws of biology.


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter 11

"Harry can you tell me why you're wearing a glamour?" Madame Pomfrey asked, looking at him in that way, that combined pity, worry and mild admonishment into one. Before, it had been used on him, when he had left something longer, than he should have before coming to see her. Like that cut on his foot that had become infected during his third year. Despite wanting to answer her question, Harry didn't for the life of him understand what she was on about. His left eyebrow raised itself higher upon his forehead, indicating to the matron his confused state clearly. She blinked, her grey eyes concentrating on his face even closer than before, it made his skin crawl.

"What's a glamour?" asked Harry tentatively wanting to draw the blankets up over his head again. Deep in his stomach he had a feeling that this wasn't a good thing. Pomfrey sighed and shifted in her chair, maybe she thought that he was lying about not knowing what it was. Panic began to build up in his chest once again, shortening his breaths and creating a dizzy feeling, but Harry brutally squashed it back down. Now wasn't the time to panic, especially as it would mean that he would have to take another of those calming potions. There was no doubt in his mind that they were evil, they tasted bad that was true but they also did one thing that was horrific in Harry's mind, they took away his control. As well as this they reduced your ability to react to things in a timely manner. Instinct and short reaction times had been what had kept Harry alive for so long.

"A glamour is a complicated mixture of charms and transfiguration that someone uses to cover up something on their body or to change the way something looks. Many people use them to cover up a particularly noticeable spot or a birthmark." Madame Pomfrey explained. As far as he knew they were yet to cover this sort of thing in class at all. Harry hadn't even heard about such a piece of magic existing and wondered whether he could use one to cover up his scar so that other people wouldn't be able to see it. That way at least he might be less noticed by the wizarding world. "It seems according to your medical notes that you have been wearing one since at the very least your second year here, maybe earlier. I would like to know why and where you learned about it." Harry was at a loss of what to say, surely he would have remembered doing something like that at least, but his mind drew a blank. There was that squirmy feeling in his stomach again, like he had swallowed a handful of snakes, there was magic on him affecting his body and he had no idea of what it was or where it had come from.

"I have no idea…I mean I didn't even know what you were talking about until you told me what it was. I can't remember doing something like that." His voice small and trembling beseeched the school healer to believe him. Her face was drawn no doubt she'd had other conversations like this in the past with people who had been lying, trying to cover up something. Something that could have really hurt them no doubt if the look on her face was anything to go by.

"There is one way we can know for sure whether you performed the magic and what it is covering up. I have known people to form a glamour as part of an instinctual process to protect themselves. It is rare but…the normal rules of magic don't seem to apply to you dear do they?" Madame Pomfrey replied as she raised herself out of the seat, moving it back to its place in the corner, before turning back to face him. "We'll just have to remove it!" As she said this, Harry felt his heart beat quicken, if she said was true and he had made a glamour to protect himself, he wasn't sure whether he wanted to know what was underneath it.

To start the procedure, he had been made to lay on top of the bed with the covers underneath him, on his back. Such a position made him feel exposed, despite the fact that he was wearing the striped blue and white pajamas that belonged to the infirmary. The healer moved his hands gently from where they lay, clasped upon his stomach to lie on the bed at his sides. Apparently a lot of the magic was concentrated upon his torso and so this would give her a better chance at removing it painlessly. As neither of them knew what the complex glamour was covering, it was going to be much harder to remove. If they had known it would be as simple as performing the counter charm and thinking about the way that the particular area covered by the charm had looked previously and it would return to that state. Without that knowledge Madame Pomfrey would have to try and perceive the difference between the magic of the glamour and Harry's own bodily magic started. Once she had found this it would be a matter of slowly peeling it away. As the glamour had probably been created by Harry it was going to be a nightmare to do so as the differences would be very small.

The witch ran her wand in the air over where Harry lay, chanting the countercharm over and over again for all of three minutes before she started. A look of sheer fury crossed over her face and for a fleeting moment Harry felt the urge to cross himself like he had seen the old lady who lived at the end of the street do when a black cat had walked in front of her. He trembled slightly as her gaze turned towards him.

* * *

><p>Poppy was trembling with barely controlled fury. Previously she had thought that Harry had himself created the glamour after all he was a very powerful boy and his creature blood had helped to boost that. After her scan though it was painfully obvious that this wasn't so. Albus Dumbledore's magical signature was all over the boy, and responsible for the glamour that was in place. There were even several spells that would alert him to where Harry was and his physical state. These were the strongest and therefore the most noticeable but many other spells lay over and beneath them, making it impossible to distinguish them from one another. He hadn't created these at Harry's request as the boy had no idea that they were there in the first place. Nor had he explained what they did, Poppy could see the drain that keeping the spells up was putting on Harry's magical core and it made her feel physically ill, the poor boy was lucky he was so powerful that it hadn't made him very ill yet. It made one wonder what it was that the old man was trying to hide.<p>

"Albus Dumbledore you complete bastard!" She whispered furiously under her breath not noticing the widening eyes of the teenage boy below her and Minerva opening the privacy curtain warily.


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter 12

Harry didn't know what to do with himself. If Madame Pomfrey's outburst was anything to go by, apparently he had Dumbledore to thank for the glamour he was currently wearing. When had he even had the chance to cast something like that upon him and why would he do it? Anger began to bubble up inside him and he clenched his hands tightly into fists, the nails pressing painfully against his palms, but not hard enough to draw blood. Such pain was distracting him, from the mess his life had suddenly turned into. What the hell else were people keeping from him? First he had been expected to believe on the word of Snape and Madame Pomfrey that he had changed into some mythical creature, with the ability to get pregnant and now… A person that he had trusted had done something to him without his knowledge, covering up something that could be hurting him. In a way he wasn't surprised, the Headmaster had ignored him completely for the majority of the last year, withholding vital information that ended up with Sirius falling through the veil. The DA wouldn't have had to go to the ministry if Harry had known what was there and the old man had let Sirius leave that monstrous oppressive house that he was forced to call home. Hadn't Sirius managed to escape the highest security prison in the British Isles, going on the run for over two years? Sirius had even managed to get into the school and not be seen by the vast majority of the portraits, in Harry's third year. The man was no idiot! Before he had been imprisoned Harry's godfather had also been one of the brightest rising stars in the ministry's auror programme. It was a shame that the ministry was prepared to break its own laws in an effort to control the mass hysteria that tended to happen whenever Voldermort had been thought to be involved with something. At the very least after his death he had been pardoned. Cornelius Fudge hadn't even lasted a day in office after the battle at the ministry. After all several hundred ministry employees had seen Harry fighting against Voldermort in the main atrium.

Madame Pomfrey had turned an interesting colour of red that made her face look like a tomato. The short woman was angry, that was easy to tell. Harry smiled; the school matron was one of the very few adults in his life that had his trust completely. She was the sort of person that was only interested in the welfare of others. She was someone who took great pride in being composed at all times, so it was greatly amusing to see her as frazzled as she was currently despite the seriousness of the situation.

"I'm sorry Harry swearing is highly unprofessional of me." Madame Pomfrey apologized; her shoulders slumped in what looked like defeat. "It seems that the glamour was created by the Headmaster, for what purpose I have no idea. Casting a spell like this on someone is illegal without their permission." A small piece of her hair had escaped from the tight bun she always wore to keep hygiene in the Hospital Wing within governmental standards. There was no way that she was letting her long hair fall into people's wounds. For one, that was hardly sanitary and she was not going to be made responsible for a breakout of Splattergroit or some other infectious disease. Distractedly, she pushed it out of her eyes and looped it behind her ear, waiting to restyle her hair at a later point. The anger that Harry had felt earlier returned full force, his whole body was shaking and his clenched hands began to sweat profusely. Regardless of this he couldn't find the words with which to voice this anger, unknown to him a drawn out low pitched growl escaped his lips, causing Professor McGonagall to start. A bitter tasting substance began to fill his mouth and he gagged, fortunately Madame Pomfrey was there with a small red bucket within seconds and he spat out the fluid. It was thicker than saliva and had an odd bluish tinge to it. It was official; Harry thought to himself not only was something wrong with his body, but all this stress had made him mad.

When he had finished the school Matron, vanished the bucket and its contents with a knowing look, before she turned to see the pale face of Professor McGonagall. Her lips were drawn tightly together, almost white with the pressure that she was exerting on them. A face, that showed she was incredibly angry, Harry was very glad that he hadn't caused it. It took five minutes for the nurse to brief the deputy headmistress and in that time a variety of different emotions played across her face before it returned once again to anger. The headmaster, it seemed was in a lot of trouble and Minerva McGonagall and Poppy Pomfrey weren't the sort of women who would let sleeping dogs lie. The two were fiercely protective of those in their care. Harry smiled; someone (or in this case two people) was looking out for his interests. He didn't know what was going to happen, but he had a feeling that it wouldn't be something that he would want to miss.

Poppy could see that Minerva was shocked. She was angry yes, but when Poppy explained in full detail the spells that Harry had, had placed upon him, the drain that this was causing on his core and what she was expecting that it was covering, the stoic Gryffindor head of house looked like she might faint at any moment.

"Harry I want you to get some rest," The medi-witch stated, helping him to get back under the soft covers of the narrow hospital bed, before tucking him in. She smiled at the rare look of trust upon his face, immensely grateful that he had placed any trust in her at all. "The spells that are on you won't do any more damage than they already have done. Minerva is going to the ministry right now to inform them of what's going on and we'll sort this all out in the morning." At this she left the curtained off area that Harry was in for a few moments before returning with the small metal trolley she had brought the other student's food on. Luckily the trays in it were spelled with a stasis charm that would keep them warm. It was very useful especially when treating ill patients as it meant that they could eat as much of it as they could handle at a pace they were comfortable with and it wouldn't go cold.

Poppy had been tempted to place a stasis charm upon the many layers of spells that covered Harry, but as they were so complex and this was the headmaster that they were dealing with she didn't dare try. Due to their complexity she could only see the strongest of them clearly and without a full knowledge of what she was dealing with she didn't know whether she could possibly trigger something that could harm the boy. As Albus was the person who it seemed had placed them without Harry's knowledge, putting them in stasis might inform him of what was going on. That was something that none of them wanted to happen until the ministry had been informed. Minerva left after having a whispered conversation with Harry and Poppy soon followed her. Today had been a rough day for everyone that was in the know.

* * *

><p>Severus Snape was a man of many different talents, but his greatest one lay in potion making. Potions was his one and only passion in life. As he headed back up to the corridor, that Harry's creature inheritance had occurred in, his lips quirked up in somewhat of a sinister smile. The few students that were still roaming the corridors after dinner scattered before him in fear of his wrath. When Professor Snape smiled it generally meant that something bad was going to happen to someone. Maybe a student had stolen from his personal potions store again. The last time that the snarky potions master had smiled before the school populous had been just before he had 'accidentally' let slip that Remus Lupin was a werewolf. He may not be as horrid a man as his image made him out to be, but that didn't mean that he didn't hold grudges for exceptionally long periods of time. In this case he might well be able to hold it until the day he died. Remus had been the worst of his tormentors in school, not because he was the most aggressive, because he most certainly wasn't. Remus was the worst in Snape's opinion at least, because he had sat there and done nothing. Sat and watched as the 'pranks' became more and more vicious. During many of the 'pranks' that had been played against him by the other members of the marauders, he had looked incredibly uncomfortable but he had never said anything, never even walked away, just stood there and stared with pleading eyes. How he had been sorted into Gryffindor Severus had no idea.<p>

Severus shook himself now was not the time to dwell on such depressing things; no matter how much you want to you can never change the past. He had made his way down the many staircases and corridors to the area in question in what had to be record time. He was glad about this as he had a number of specialist potions that would require his attention within the next hour. It wouldn't do to leave them unattended any longer than was absolutely necessary. After all he didn't want to endanger his snakes, veritaserum was a potion that was highly unstable at the best of times, but in its early brewing stages...well he didn't want to think about it. He had an important task to complete. As faeries were incredibly rare in modern times and also very secretive, it was almost unheard of for a Faerie chrysalis to come onto the potions ingredients market. As such they were so expensive the various potions containing it as an ingredient could bankrupt even a family as wealthy as the Malfoys. Most potions masters had completely give up on such potions and many of them had been lost to history. It had been one of the pressures upon the market that had pushed potion creators of the past four centuries to experiment and create new potions. Severus prided himself on his collection of ancient potions manuscripts, many he had been given by those who had lost faith in the potions they were being asked to create or who had retired with no-one within the family to pass them down to. Sure he would first have to obtain Harry's permission to use it, after all it had been part of his body and such things were useless if taken by force. There was also the fact that people sometimes were very sentimental about such things. When he was a boy, an aunt of his had had several kidney stones taken out in an operation. She had demanded to be allowed to keep them and had placed them proudly in a glass jar on her mantelpiece showing them to anyone who came to see her. He hummed a little to himself; the possibilities for new potions were exciting. There was nothing he liked better than experimenting and augmenting existing potions to improve them.

The chrysalis hung in the exact same position that it had before, surrounded by the cocoon, it would have to be harvested soon, before it began to disintegrate. As he looked at it, Severus could see a strange thin long bump within it. Everywhere else on the cocoon was flat and relatively smooth despite the fact that it was made from Harry's shredded clothes and a special type of saliva he had secreted with hardening properties. The potions master reached out to touch it, surprised by the fact that the material had retained a slightly soft and pliable texture (like leather); he had expected it to have begun to dry out by now. Apparently the stasis charm that they had placed upon the room was still working. Tenderly he caressed the cocoon, raising an eyebrow at the feeling of a hard substance exactly where the foreign bump was. If it was what he thought it was then Potter was one lucky boy.

Poppy, Minerva and he had looked for Harry's wand extensively during the time he had spent within this thing and had been unable to locate it. Yet here it was protected by the cocoon! Feeling in the inner pocket of his robes, Severus withdrew a razor sharp silver and steel potions knife that he carried upon his person at all times. After all you never know when you'll find a potions ingredient in this castle, what with all the hidden rooms and concealed gardens there were. It was relatively easy work to cut open the small sack that had been created to hold the wand; he quickly placed it and the knife back into his pocket. Other wizard's and witches' wands could be very temperamental about being handled by others and he didn't want to end up with third degree burns like the last time. Generally they would only allow those with a strong positive emotional relationship to the one they had chosen to use them, hence why families often handed down wands. The only other way to get a foreign wand to obey you was to win it from another. Twenty minutes was all it took to harvest the chrysalis, clean the area and remove the spells that they had placed on it earlier. By this time tomorrow dozens of student would once again have passed through here. No doubt they would be wondering why they had forgotten that this short cut existed. They would have to think about placing a portrait in here somehow so they wouldn't have to go through this again.

A/n Once again i would like to say thank you to you all for reading, reviewing, favouriting and putting the story on your alert list, you are aazing. On another note over 50 different countries sre reading this story!


	13. Chapter 13

A/n I don't particularly like the way that this chapter turned out, but its the best i could do with it. 

Chapter 13

Neville should have known that Harry's creature inheritance wouldn't have stayed secret for very long, after all there was hardly anything that could be in these hallowed halls. If there was one thing that the vast majority of students enjoyed it was participating in the rumor mill. Rumor was one of the very few things there was to do with ones free time and a vital thing to participate in if one was ever to be popular. Seamus and Dean had placed bets that it had been Lavender who had spilled what little information they had to the rest of the school. Why Dumbledore hadn't just announced it to the whole school was beside him, that girl couldn't keep her mouth shut if her life depended on it. So far they had all heard many different things, from the potentially likely to the absurd. People were saying that Harry was a Veela, a Selkie, a dryad the list went on and on and on. There were so few actual facts and so many different creatures out there that it was nigh on impossible to work out what Harry actually was. At the very least this would give their friend a little more privacy until he was back in lessons.

Luna had informed them shortly before curfew that the ravenclaws were seeing this as some form intellectual test. The whole house was attempting to work out what he was as a unit. That piece of information had them all on edge Harry wouldn't want whatever he was passed around school, but that was inevitable. It seemed that as a whole the school was excepting what Harry was going through, especially the sixth and seventh years, those with families with known creature blood in them and the more open minded muggleborns. Though there were some who were talking about how disgusting it was. Such people were lucky that they weren't violent people and that they valued people's opinions. As long as they didn't act upon them they were safe from the wrath of Harry's hardcore group of friends, but the moment they did... Anyway those seventh years who had already gone through their inheritances were quite happy to show anyone stupid enough to say such things to their face the error of their ways.

As the boys headed back up to Gryffindor tower after seeing that Luna got back safely to her dorm, they passed an empty classroom, usually they would have walked right past. This time though something caught their attention and the twins motioned for them to stop. After years of pranking everyone in the castle and living in a house jam packed with people they had an uncanny knack for noticing when something was going on. It had helped them to avoid detection and therefore a lot of detentions over the years. A particularly loud conversation seemed to be occurring within the classroom. Well it was less of a conversation and more Ron Weasley ranting than anything else, the door stood ajar and the two people were sitting on the classroom desks with their backs towards the door. There was no mistaking Ronald Weasley and Hermione Granger what with the trademark red Weasley hair and the frizzy mass of curls that Granger sported. Fred and George shook their heads sadly, they hadn't even bothered to put up a silencing charm, and it was quite pathetic really. They couldn't believe that their own brother would be so stupid as to air his beliefs and grievances without one, but then again he had also betrayed Harry's trust so he wasn't the smartest of people. As they edged closer they were better able to hear what they were saying. It wasn't good, and Neville and Fred had to hold back Dean and Seamus from going in there and causing some serious damage. It seemed that Mrs. Weasleys influence on Ron was much stronger than they had imagined it to be. George sighed heavily.

For there he was ranting away about the fact that Harry his former best friend had turned into a dirty creature. Hermione was nodding along beside him, her eyes never leaving his flushed face. There had been a time where Hermione had been able to make decisions for herself, but ever since she and Ron had become a couple she had begun to follow him in everything he did. It was quite sick to watch really as he crushed her spirit. They had tried to help her see the error in her judgement but she had refused to hear a word wrong about him. If the youngest Weasley son hadn't been terrible at brewing they might have suspected that he had been using a love potion on her.

Before long Ron had gone from ranting about how all creatures should be culled and other such unpleasant things to ranting about how he had better not have become gay. Neville snorted as if anyone could 'become gay' it was a genetic thing or at least something about the way in which your brain was wired. There was nothing wrong with being gay, it was a vital part of nature. Then he became less and less politically correct until what was falling out of his mouth was utter filth. Highly homophobic...filth. Fred and George felt the urge to teach their brother a lesson in how to keep his language clean, mentally adding to their list of pranking materials a bar of soap and a scrubbing brush.

"Fucking Faerie bastard!" Ron shouted, punching the desk with his hand, making it shake precariously underneath him.. To be honest Neville had, had enough and was about to turn away when two things happened. The first was that Seamus had stopped fighting to be released and had begun to cry big hear heart wrenching sobs, desperately latching on to him. Making the ace Herbology student unable to move without falling over, taking the other boy with him. Immediately afterwards, Dean had turned to look at his best friend turned boyfriend, noticing the fat salty tears rolling down his freckled face, before launching himself across the room at Ron. Dean was a particularly built guy and Fred hadn't been able to hold him when he was using his full strength borne from the desperate need he felt to defend Seamus. In the blink of an eye he was all the way across the room and regardless of the fact that everyone but Neville and Seamus had followed him screaming at him not to do it, Dean punched Ron hard in the face. Both Ron and Hermione had turned quickly at the calls from Fred and George, but that had just given Dean a better target to aim for. A loud cracking noise reverberated around the room and shortly after blood began to rush from Ron's nose, flowing all over his white school shirt. Dean hoped it would stain, giving the complete wanker something to remember the day by. Hermione immediately pulled out some tissues from her robes pocket and grabbed hold of Ron's nose in order to stem the blood flow. He yelped and began swearing, nearly falling of the desk as she pulled his head forwards. After admonishing her boyfriend for moving and using 'Such coarse language. What would your Mother say?' she turned to Dean.

"As a prefect I would like to inform you that you are serving detention with Professor McGonagall for the next week. There was no reason for such violent behavior." She stated primly, smoothing her pleated black school skirt down and looking admonishingly and Dean who was panting and clutching his fist to his chest. He had hit Ron much harder than he had been planning to. All the stress that had been building up within him over the past few months, ever since he and Seamus had come out to their parents had gone into that punch. If he was honest with himself the stress had been there before they had both come out, it had been there from the very moment that they had even thought about doing so. Dean and Hermione stared at each other for a good minute before Neville felt someone pass him. He turned his head to the left from where his head was cradled against Seamus' neck, though he continued his rubbing of the younger boy's back, occasionally whispering assurances to him. He was yet to stop crying. Some of the things Ron had said had touched a nerve with the usually smiley Irish boy.

"That won't be necessary Miss Granger." The charms professor stated, apparently they had been loud enough for him to be disturbed from his office four or five doors down the corridor. His bright brown eyes swept the room seeming to rivet them all to the floor where they were standing. "Mr. Weasley, Miss Granger wait outside please I will see you in a moment." Ron looked as if he wanted to protest but the usually chipper teacher looked grave and not someone who you wanted to start an argument with. Professor Flitwick had after al been a dueling champion in his younger days and had retired as seven years unbeaten champion of Europe. Once the couple had left the room, Flitwick turned to them, beckoning Neville and Seamus in, before requesting them to close the door behind them. Seamus then immediately latched himself onto Dean and Neville had the chance to right his clothes again. The silver clasp of his winter cloak had ended up underneath his left ear in a fashion that was oddly reminiscent of his appearance before the sorting ceremony of his first year. He blushed strongly, raising a hand to flatten his hair. Flitwick had raised an eyebrow at the scene that stood before him, before sighing. "Mr. Thomas I appreciate the fact that Mr. Weasley was saying some very hurtful things, but I want you to know that such behavior is not acceptable." At this point, Dean had made to defend himself but Flitwick had raised a gnarled hand to stop him. "In future if something of this nature is to happen again I want you to go to a teacher." He then turned to Neville and the Weasley twins , before telling them in no uncertain terms that they were dismissed.

The three of them made it back to the dorm without any further incidents happening and with ten minutes to spare before curfew. In an unspoken agreement they took an unused bench by one of the large bay windows to wait until Seamus and Dean came back. It was important that they made sure the two had made it back safely. In that time the common room slowly began to empty and Ron and Hermione had returned. The youngest Weasley boy looked livid, his ears bright red and muttering to himself, knocking a first year over as he tramped up the stairs to his bed, glaring at them as he passed. Hermione looked confused and a little upset, but she too made a beeline to her bed before anyone could stop her.

When Dean and Seamus did return, it was literally seconds before curfew and they looked as if a great weight had been lifted up off of their shoulders. Fred happily noticed that there was no evidence of tears on Seamus' face. Once the heavy portrait door had closed behind them, the two gravitated closer together, arms wrapping around each other lovingly. Their eyes became soft as they gazed at one another falling into their own little world. The three friends turned away to give them their privacy, it was the least they could do. A few moments later Dean coughed awkwardly to get their attention. As one they turned back round to face them again. Fred nudged George and looked towards Seamus who was sporting a full face blush, before they both giggled. At times Neville found it hard to believe that they were a year older than the rest of the group. They had left during Umbridge's strangle hold of the school the year before and had returned in order they said to complete their education. Everyone knew that the real reason was to keep an eye out for Harry who needed all the allies he could get. Well everyone knew except Harry who could at times be pretty oblivious. Upon re-enrolling they had been placed back into the sixth year, meaning that two beds had been added to their dorm.

"I've got new respect for Flitwick now, that guy is amazing!" Dean stated, brushing a hand through his hair, smoothing it back, only for it to spring right back up again. "He totally listened to what we had to say and told us we could go see him whenever we needed to. And he only gave me one detention where Ron's got a month of them with Filch." Seamus smiled, squeezing the hand that had found its way into his, swinging it slowly, and reveling in the closeness and the acceptance they had found talking to the professor.

"He even said that he'll talk to me Mam for me." Seamus whispered eyes glistening slightly. Neville pulled out a blue and white spotted handkerchief from the chest pocket of his shirt and handed it to him. It wasn't until much later that they realized what Ron had let slip.

**A/n: If yoo want to know what Harry's wings look like search for pictures of lysandra bellargus. A thank you to you all once again.**


	14. Chapter 14

Chapter 14

Minerva headed straight for the floo in her office, as deputy headmistress she was one of the very few people in the castle who had a direct link with the outside world. The other members of staff either had to walk all the way into the village or use Albus' floo connection. Most chose the former as it meant that at least they had some privacy about where they were headed to. It was possible for the other staff members to converse and travel internally using the school's floo system. There had been cases in the past where the use of this service had been vital. Minerva could remember the time when a first year Hufflepuff had gone missing and they had needed the floo connection to get her from the seventh floor down to the infirmary, before she developed full blown hypothermia. All the staff had been terrified when they realized that she had been missing for eight hours. She had fallen asleep on the astronomy tower in the middle of February but had luckily made a quick recovery.

Upon arriving in her office she made sure that the mountain of paperwork that had been placed on top of her desk earlier that morning when she had been in an optimistic mood was firmly weighted down. Who would have known that the rock collection that she had acquired over the years would be of some actual use. Stuff did tend to pile up on her especially with her many different duties within the school. It would do her no good if the carefully organized pile were to fly of the desk as she entered the floo network. With the number of pages that there were it could possibly take her days to piece everything back together and that was time that she just didn't have in her hectic schedule. With one final scan that proved to her that everything was in order, she locked the door, drew the heavy red velvet curtains closed and pushed the bottom drawer of her desk open. Hidden in a secret compartment at the very bottom lay the small bag of floo powder that she kept there, taking a pinch, she replaced it and pushed to draw once again closed. It was a motion completed with practiced ease. Her fireplace stood across from the stained Scot's Pine desk that she had brought with her from her home upon accepting a teaching post at the school all those years ago. It was made of white marble, flecked with both gray and black tones, quite a beautiful thing really and the reason that she had chosen this room rather than the one usually sequestered by the deputy head. That room had been unreasonably dark due to its lack of natural light. In here she could procrastinate to her hearts delight by looking out of the window which overlooked the grounds.

In the blink of an eye she threw the emerald green powder into the fire, stepped in and called her destination clearly. She smiled serenely to herself Albus was finally going to get what was coming to him. He had meddled in so many different things over the years that he had gained himself a large group of people who would be willing to help bring him down. The school's floo system was rigged so that it always took the member of staff to the wizarding child services office when the traveller stated the ministry as their destination. This was because the WCSO was generally where they wanted to be.

Minerva smiled tightly at the pretty young witch manning the desk as she walked towards it. Her blonde hair was loosely plaited over her shoulder and reached all the way down to the floor. She didn't recognize her, which meant that either she was from/had been schooled overseas or had been home schooled. The number of parents choosing to do either of the two, had gone up violently in the past six years, not that Minerva thought them silly for doing so. Hogwarts had not been a particularly safe place to send a child for the past couple of years what with Quirrel, the chamber of secrets incident and the Triwizard tournament to name a few of the more dangerous things that had gone on. The secretary inked in an emergency appointment with Amelia Bones, the head of the department. Minerva thanked her luck that she hadn't left yet. Amelia was a very busy women due to her many different roles within the ministry. No doubt with the new minister in charge there was even more work for her to do. She would arrive down here when she could and so the old transfiguration teacher took a seat in the deserted waiting room, and looked at the mural on the wall. It was much the same, as the one there was painted in the children's ward of St Mungos. All brightly coloured, with magical animals and witches and wizards smiling out at the room, occasionally doing different activities, it took up three quarters of the room. Around her lay various toys that were used to distract the children with and in the corner was a small playpen filled with more toys. Slowly growing bored, her attention was taken by a magazine that lay on the top of a small pile on the low coffee table in front of her. It was an old copy of Transfiguration Today the number one selling transfiguration magazine, old enough that she was no longer able to remember what it contained. Sighing Minerva settled down to read in the squeaky leather chair.

She had reached the crossword puzzle (which a previous reader had filled in) before Amelia arrived; wearing a high necked grey robe with lilac edging that looked rather fetching on her. Office wear really had changed over the past ten years. Minerva rose from her seat putting the magazine back in its place. It had been an interesting read and maybe someone else would enjoy it on a later date. Amelia was talking hurriedly with the secretary and so she approached slowly giving them time to change the subject if it was something that was confidential.

"Is room three empty Flora?" Madame Bones was asking, a large faded blue file braced at her hip crammed with hundreds of pieces of parchment some of which were threatening to fall out. Catching a highly embossed piece that had started to slip out she sighed, roughly shoving it back in. No doubt she had been dealing with such occurrences all day. When the girl, who was seemingly named Flora nodded, her braid lifted off of the floor before falling again and curling round the leg of her chair. Amelia turned and beckoned her down a narrow corridor lined with various pictures that children had drawn for the staff and into a small room whose door was marked by a large silver number three. Minerva sat herself in the red cushioned seat half turned towards the desk. Amelia took her seat at the small desk, putting the file down as carefully as she was able to. Its weight however still caused a loud slamming noise to occur and the desk wobbled ominously upon its legs, before it settled.

"To what do I owe the pleasure of this meeting?" Madame Bones inquired as she unbuttoned the first three buttons of her robe, which, as she sat had seemed to begun to choke her slightly. Formal robes were not the most comfortable of things. She looked over at Minerva and took in her appearance and the time that was on the wall clock. "I take it this isn't a social call. Usually it's Severus that comes to us."

"Albus has finally gone too far." Minerva growled, clenching the arms of the chair, until her bony knuckles turned white. She was glad that all the rooms within this part of the ministry were protected by a number of charms, spells and wards that meant that no-one could listen in to the conversations that were being had within them. Purebloods were very paranoid about others finding out their personal information. Without such an assurance Minerva would never have had the confidence to say what she had to, not because of cowardliness, it was more the fact that she didn't want any of this getting back to Albus before all of the pieces were in place. He was as slippery as an eel and given the chance he would find his way out of whatever trap they laid for him. Then man knew how to play chess with everyone else's lives. From an inner pocket of her dark green teaching robes, she withdrew Harry's medical records which she then passed over to Amelia. Laid on the top of the file was a letter which had been written and magically sealed by Madame Pomfrey herself to avoid tampering. The letter explained the situation and the notes backed it up, helping them to create a case against the supposed leader of the light.

* * *

><p>Amelia Bones found what she was reading hard to believe at first. It was true that she held no love for the doddering old man, but this was beyond anything that she had thought he was capable of. She didn't know what she was more disturbed by the nature of what was going on or the fact that it had been so subtle. Madame Pomfrey and Professor Snape on the other hand would never ever lie when it came to a child's well being. Whatever glamour was on Harry Potter needed to be taken off as soon as possible, before it drained all the magic out of his core. What was the old man trying to hide?<p>

Usually either Poppy or Severus would come to her department in the first month of school with some poor child that had been abused and they would sort out legal proceedings against the perpetrator. After such necessities were done they would then look at the family that they were part of and see whether they needed to be moved to live with another relative or whether they needed to set about finding them a new family to be placed with. Unlike in the muggle world this was usually a very quick process as there were many families in the wizarding world that wanted to take in children. There were many different reasons why a couple would want to adopt a child. In some of the older pureblooded families such as the Blacks, Malfoys and Lovegoods, inbreeding had caused the fertility of members to plummet. Some couples only ever managing to conceive a single child and adoption was the only way they could have the large family that they had dreamed of. Others just wanted to give a child a loving home. From the very beginning of this meeting she had sensed that something big was going to happen. When the child involved in the case was a sixteen year old Harry Potter, she struggled to picture how this could be any bigger. The allegations that the three staff members were making could possibly blow the entire structure of the wizarding world to pieces.

She pulled out a spare blank piece of parchment from her file and began to write down all of the laws that she thought Albus Dumbledore had breached. First there was the fact that according to Minerva he had willingly and knowingly placed the boy into a family where one of the parents was known to be magic phobic. Everyone had known that about Lily's sister and the fact that she had said repeatedly if she ever had a child there was no way she would ever want or allow Petunia to look after it. Secondly he had neglected to check up on the boy at all during the ten years he was at the Dursleys home; by law as his magical guardian he should have done this. There was ignoring staff who were worried about the boy's state of mind and physical state... the list went on and on. When she had made her way down from the auror's office, she had been bone weary, though now it felt as if a fire had been lit within her. This time they were going to catch him.


	15. Chapter 15

A/n: Another short chapter i'm afraid, but dont worry longer ones are on thier way soon.

Chapter 15

Both Poppy and Minerva had given her the clearance to take the boy's bulging file up to the aurors office. It was here that the two women met with a dog tired Rufus Scrimgeour and filed an official complaint against the Headmaster. Rufus had known from the off that this case was going to be special. Most problems with students at the school were solved by Wizarding Children's Services down on the second floor, only the very worst cases were ever brought to him. The cases where criminal prosecution was needed tended to be complicated and fraught with danger. Everyone involved had to try and stay as objective as possible. From the corner of his eye he could see the smoky image of a tall man with a long beard in his foe glass. There were no prizes for guessing who it was. Albus Dumbledore was the bane of his existence. As the two women seated themselves in his somewhat Spartan office, there were no picture frames or knock knacks like the others were wont to keep on their desks, he took a moment to compose himself. Even a battle hardened auror like him found it incredibly difficult to maintain his/her professionalism when confronted with child abuse cases. Those who abused children were among the lowest of the low.

He took the file and the previously opened letter reading through them quickly and then he swore, before standing up from his desk and pulling them both into a bear hug. This had been the piece of the puzzle that he had been missing, For years the auror department had been trying to get Dumbledore on something, but those that filed complaints and witnesses had a nasty habit of disappearing or suddenly changing their minds. The aurors office was one of the very few departments within the ministry that no-one had ever been able to bribe. It was a long standing tradition and they prided themselves on being the best of the best. Despite heavy losses in both of Voldermort's campaigns they were the biggest department, involved in the everyday running of the ministry and the wizarding world as a whole. Many only saw them as dark wizard catchers but they were in fact the police of the wizarding world, willing to bring in those who committed any crime no matter how big or how small. Harry Potter was a weighty name, especially so these days. Minerva and Amelia glared at him; he coughed awkwardly and set them back down. Operation Lemon Sherbet was go.

The poor boy who was at the center of this case had been through enough in his relatively short life without Dumbledore performing illegal spells upon him and that was just the tip of a rather large iceberg it seemed. He wondered what other evidence they would have once the glamour had come down. Once he had agreed to pursue the case a heated debate sprung up between them over whether to remove the spells on Harry tonight or whether they should wait until the morning.

"It would be better for the boy if we remove them as soon as possible!" Rufus stated placing the papers back into their folder in the correct order; it wouldn't do to upset the Hogwarts matron especially if he was going to have to work with her. Everyone who knew her as a classmate or who had had the privilege of being treated by her new that when roused she was a terrifying woman. One who in his younger years he might have pursued, there was nothing an auror liked more than a bit of danger after all.

"Poppy wants him to be left alone until morning Rufus. He's just been through a creature inheritance and needs what little sleep he can get." Minerva countered the head auror's head raised at the last fact. It was well known that the Potter family hadn't had a creature inheritance for at least ten generations. But he gave in, if that's what Poppy wanted then that was what she was getting she was the medical expert here.

They parted with promises that Rufus would send two aurors and a St Mungos children's healer to help support Poppy in taking off the myriad of spells. The aurors would also be there to give Albus his letter of suspension. He wouldn't be able to work at the school whilst he was being investigated. Them being there would also hopefully reduce the possibility of the two healers being interrupted. As well as this he had insisted that a governmental scribing scroll be in the room, it would document all spells used on Harry, his physical state both before and after they were removed and was vital if they were to bring this before the wizengamot. The enchanted scroll was needed as it couldn't be tricked physically or magically or be tampered with it could therefore act as an indisputable piece of evidence in court. One last thing was also to be sent along, a magical camera to take pictures of Harry before and after to show to the court the level of risk the boy had been placed at.

After eating his delicious dinner of spaghetti bolognaise, treacle tart and ice cream (all his favourites), he chugged down what was left of his glass of orange juice. It was the first meal that he had been able to eat all of this year so far. What with his stomach still being shrunken from his time at the Dursleys and the nausea he had been suffering from ever since he came back to school, it had been hard to summon up the will power to eat anything. According to Madame Pomfrey he had spent a little over a week inside a chrysalis like a butterfly without eating. In a way it made sense and even though it didn't look like he had lost weight Harry could feel that he had though it wasn't weight that he thought that he could afford to lose. Apparently the fact that it didn't look like he had lost weight was the result of the glamour which was projecting a false image to everyone around him. Harry shuddered maybe it wouldn't be a good thing to know what was actually there.

Sleeping was something that Harry found hard to do at the best of times but Madame Pomfrey had come to see him before she retired to bed and told him of the meeting in the morning. She had only told him the very basics of what was going on promising him to explain things fully in the morning once everything had been planned out. In spite of her assurances, it was playing on his mind. What if they couldn't remove it and it continued to pull on his magic, would he die? What if his body that he had seen for the past five or six years wasn't truly what was there? The bed that he was laying on was uncomfortable because it was too comfortable. to most people this made no sense at all, but to Harry he didn't feel like it was there. Sleeping in a hospital bed felt like sleeping on a cloud, usually he was too drugged up to really feel anything that was going on, but he lay there completely awake, tossing and turning. Tens of thousands of scenarios of what might happen tomorrow passed through his head at lightning speed. It was all too much, even the soft glow of the nightlight Madame Pomfrey had left him was burning his eyes. He tossed and turned the mattress beneath him felt like it was eating him as he sunk down into it. In a last ditch attempt to get some sleep Harry pulled all the blankets from the bed, shoved them underneath and climbed under there with them. In his opinion you couldn't beat a good hard floor as something to sleep on. Harry smiled, this tiny place reminded him of the cupboard under the stairs where he had lived from the ages of three to eleven. Even more strongly it reminded him of the kitchen cupboard he had slept in until then. Small places were nice. No one could get you if you were in a small place.

A/n: If you want to see what Harry's wings look like search for picture of the butterfly **lysandra bellargus, **it was my inspiration.


	16. Chapter 16

Chapter 16

Friday morning came sooner than he had expected it to. Last night had felt like it had gone on for days, the sheer amount of things that had happened was enough to make anyone's head spin. As Harry awoke, he banged his head on the metal tubes that made up the bed above him. Wincing at the pain this caused, he reached up to rub the impact site and check that he hadn't done himself any serious damage. The last thing he needed right now was brain damage to add to his growing list of problems. Not able to feel any abnormalities to his skull, the hand came back down to rest in his lap.

All around him, the infirmary was still dark, showing that the sun had yet to rise. The night light left by Madam Pomfrey must have went out during that small period of sleep that he had managed to catch. Harry knew that it was six o'clock as that was the time that he had woken up at for the past thirteen years. It wasn't something that he found hard to do unlike his other dorm mates who had trouble getting up at all in the mornings. Back at the Dursleys it was vital to get up before anyone else in order to get breakfast ready, if he was lucky it had even been possible to take some food for himself without Petunia or Vernon knowing. Since Harry had begun doing all the shopping they could no longer tell what was in the house at any given time. Seamus, Dean and Neville used a tempus alarm to get them up in the morning, but Ron who slept like the dead was lucky to get up before breakfast had ended. When they had been friends, Harry would have woken him up by rolling him out of his bed. It was the only way to ensure that he would actually get up. Now he just left him there snoring away, just like Ron had left him.

He sighed, reaching out from under the small bed in order to pull himself out of the tight space beneath it, hand brushing off the smooth warmed stone before it found the cold metal leg of the bed. Once it was within his reach Harry grabbed it tightly, using his pitiful upper body strength to pull him out. He was lucky that he was so short otherwise he would never have fit underneath, therefore ensuring that he didn't get any sleep.

"I'd better put these back on the bed." Harry whispered to himself, grabbing the many squashy covers and soft blankets from his little sleeping space. He didn't want anyone to question him about his somewhat strange sleeping habits; it was bad enough as it was that Madam Pomfrey, Professor McGonagall and even Professor Snape were worried about him. At least Harry thought as he smoothed out the covers, they hadn't found out what it was like for him at the Dursley's. Not that he was complaining of course, he knew his place this was what he deserved after all. Without Harry there would be so many people that would still be alive. A sob caught itself in the back of his throat, he missed Sirius. Sirius had been a great friend, someone who cared about him; maybe he had even loved him. A single tear made its way down his face before he regained full control of himself again. It was a familiar feeling, squashing the emotion away inside of him and leaving it there, during his life it was a skill that was vital in order to get by. Uncle Vernon always said that crying was for girls. Despite the fact that he could apparently have children Harry was adamant that he was not a girl.

He didn't have much time to think about all of this, before his thoughts were interrupted by Madame Pomfrey checking to see whether he was awake. He had been here so often that she knew his routine down to a tee. Behind her she was pulling the same trolley she had been the night before, a single tray upon it. The dishes upon it clinked as the wheels of the trolley were pulled over the flag stones and the juices sloshed from side to side in their glasses in a way that looked dangerous to Harry. Surely they would spill out. Breakfast time it was then, Harry decided. The tray was filled with little bits of everything that was being offered in the great hall this morning. Porridge, toast, jam, bacon, scrambled eggs, fruit and various cereals. There were also three different types of juice pumpkin, which Harry screwed his nose up at, it was way too sugary, orange and blackcurrant. He opted for the fresh orange juice and pulled the porridge and fruit bowls closer to him before digging in. From the corner of his eye he could see her watching him, scribbling away on her thick notepad. No doubt, quietly assessing what he was eating and how much he was eating. Carefully replacing his utensils onto the shiny tray, bowl empty he passed it back to her, and she returned it to the trolley, which promptly disappeared. As she turned Harry was able to catch a glimpse of her face and on it was a look of worry and disappointment, though he couldn't think why. Today he had eaten much more than he had been able to the night before. He usually found it very hard to eat on a morning, anything that he ate at such a time had the tendency of making him feel extremely nauseous.

"Harry I'm just about to have a meeting with a healer from St Mungos and two aurors from the ministry about this glamour problem." Madame Pomfrey stated, from her place by the bedside, straightening non existing wrinkles from her heavy plaid skirts. At this he frowned he didn't particularly want the ministry involved in this especially after the slanderous things Fudge had, had printed about him last year. He supposed that the fact that the ministry was involved meant that this was bigger than the kindly healer and the deputy headmistress were able to deal with on their own. Despite her having mentioned it the night before Harry still hadn't gotten used to the idea of what was going to happen yet. Nor, wrapped his mind around the fact, that he had been betrayed once again. "The aurors are only here to ensure your safety if the headmaster gets wind of this and to ensure that the whole process is documented correctly so that it can be brought up in court."

"In court?" Harry exclaimed loudly without really noticing that he had said it out loud. He was shocked, no one had mentioned court to him. The healer smiled wistfully before saying.

"Yes Harry what he's done to you is illegal and therefore he has to be punished." He was fully in shock; no-one had ever stood up for him like this before.

* * *

><p>It took her some time to reach the entrance hall. Usually outsiders wouldn't be able to enter the wards of the ancient castle. This was after all to keep the children safe, years and years of different teachers adding layer upon layer of warding meant that the place was nigh on impenetrable. Without such protections the school would not have been able to stay open during the war with Voldermort, parents wouldn't have wanted to put their children at such a high risk. Especially with them being incredibly vulnerable due to their lack of magical knowledge. Voldermort the man, or the monster which he had turned into would have had no qualms killing a school full of children. The purebloods no doubt would have been saved and maybe a few of the higher ranking half bloods, but the muggle born children... She didn't dare think of it.<p>

Special commands within the wards ensured that aid could be brought to the school for the children, as this situation proved. The castle had allowed the healer and the two hit aurors through because it could sense the fact that Harry needed them. Even though Poppy had been at the school for half a century now, the building kept on finding ways to shock her. It wouldn't surprise the nurse if the school was actually sentient. She could see them walking up the long gravel drive from the village, the aurors wearing bright red robes with black leather belts over the top from which hung magic suppressing handcuffs, an incapacitating spray and an emergency portkey. The healer was easy to spot in his lime green robes a cartoon tabard over them showing that he was a specialized children's healer. Poppy rocked back and forth on the balls of her feet nervously. Harry wouldn't like that she would have to ask him to remove it before they began to treat Harry. In his hand he carried a small dragon hide bag no doubt with the necessary equipment within it.

They had almost reached the castle when Poppy felt a disturbance in the ambient magic around her, she turned expecting to see one of the children (probably a Ravenclaw this early in the morning) on their way to breakfast. Instead, of one of the students, Poppy could see, the headmaster making his way towards her an angry look upon his face, twinkle absent from his baby blue eyes. His robes, as gaudy as ever swung madly from side to side as he stamped his way across the entrance hall in no doubt what he thought was an imposing manner. Poppy had to stifle a giggle behind her hand it was hard to take anyone seriously if they were wearing neon yellow with purple stripes covered with a repeating rose pattern, especially if that individual was over a hundred years old and had a full length beard. Shockingly this was one of the more tasteful outfits from the man's wardrobe. Where on earth he bought them from nobody knew? There was only one person the Matron knew who could possibly pull of this look and that was little Luna Lovegood.

"Why pray was I not informed by the ministry of your coming, nor the reason for it?" Dumbledore demanded of the three men who had by now fully entered the hall. The healer visibly paled, though whether this was caused by the headmaster's furious expression or by his choice of clothing this morning it was impossible to say. Poppy was glad to see that Kingsley had been sent by the minister as one of the aurors to ensure that the procedure was carried out, the man had a cool head on his shoulders and could think for himself. Dumbledore smiled at him as he stepped forward, no doubt thinking that Kingsley was on his side, after all he had been a vital part of the Order during the second rising of Voldermort, little did he know that Shacklebolt had been leaking information about the order to those who could be trusted in his department. An aurors one and only allegiance was to the department it was one of the many ways in which they stopped corruption. Behind him Gareth Goldstein was fingering the handcuffs attached to his belt, slowly moving to stand between the headmaster and the healer who was now trembling, wand gripped tightly in his left hand.

"We are here to serve you this notice from the minister and to ensure the healing of a student within this school remains uninterrupted." Kingsley countered, his smooth baritone somehow commanding yet friendly. As he spoke Madame Pomfrey could see him withdrawing a vivid blue letter from his pocket, before he handed it to the elderly man. Dumbledore's eyebrows lifted in surprise. No doubt he hadn't expected them to go to the top. Not only was the auror department on thier side, but the minster of magic was as well. She was one of the many that Albus had ridden roughshod over the last fifty years. The school matron smiled in relief, he didn't know what was going on. Even though Minerva had informed her the night before of what measures Rufus was willing to take she hadn't been able to believe it until now. For a brief moment a look of complete fury passed over the elderly man's face, before he managed to get a reign on his emotions and it returned to an amused and puzzled look.

"Surely this is a mistake Kingsley! What could I have possibly done to receive a temporary dismissal from my post? Surely we can talk about this like civilized people." The headmaster asked the twinkle back in his eyes at full beam. Poppy shuddered, she could feel the man's magic seeping through her, trying to manipulate her emotions. "Now if you tell me who this student is i'm sure we can all sort this out." Desperately she looked over to Auror Goldstein he nodded and subtly indicated to the young medi healer who looked like he was going to faint. As calmly as possible she walked over to the young man linked her arm through his, causing his to blush.

"I think you must have been homeschooled my dear I don't remember your face." She stated calmly patting his arm soothingly with her hand. He nodded jerkily, eyes focusing on her face but every now and then turning to look at the argument that was beginning to escalate behind them. Colour seemed to be slowly returning to his cheeks as she led him towards the staircase that would take them to her office. "I'll show you the way to the infirmary my dear don't you worry." The poor lad was still shaking; they would have to have a conversation about what was going on before they started planning what needed to be done to help Harry.


	17. Chapter 17

A/n: I'm suffering from some computer problems at the moment. You have no idea what i've had to do to get this out to you today. My laptop has a virus and it won't let me open the internet, so this is being put up on my dad's computer. I hope to resolve this problem as quickly as possible. So please try to bear with it. 

Chapter 17

Albus Dumbledore's morning had not started greatly. In fact the past week had been absolutely terrible in many different ways. On Monday he hadn't been able to change the password, as he usually did. It was more to annoy everyone else than for any security reasons. The marble staircase had been warded centuries ago only to let people through if the Headmaster wasn't busy, over the years he had weakened the charm and tweaked it so that he could allow others up the stairs if he wanted to during a meeting. It had worked perfectly the year before last, when Harry had come to see him about seeing Barty Crouch Senior in the forest. He had let the boy stand outside the room and listen to the conversation that he was having. Such great fun it was to fiddle with the boy's life! By the time he had been let in of course, enough time had elapsed that only Mr. Krum was left at the scene. It had made H/arry look just a little unreliable, the perfect seeds planted in the minister's mind for the year ahead. It had led to a hate campaign stronger than he would have liked but it had worked its purpose. He would have to make do without changing it this week, at least until he found out what the problem was. The fact that he had not changed it would also unsettle people especially those such as Minerva and Severus who knew his routine intimately.

On Tuesday Fawkes had gone out on a flight, something that he didn't allow the bird to do often and he had yet to turn back up again. It was one of the reasons why he wasn't allowed out very often. The phoenix was greatly unreliable and a valuable commodity. A potent symbol of the headmaster's position on the light side. He would turn up again of that Albus was sure, after all, the bond between them wouldn't allow them to be apart for very long without their being some nasty side effects. Not for him though he had ensured that wouldn't happen, he couldn't be made weaker by another, not again. Gellert had been the only one he had ever full opened up with and look at where that had taken him. For years he had watched from the sidelines as the man amassed his vast army of followers, wreaking havoc across Europe. It had been too unbearable to think that the Gellert he had known that summer had turned into this. The love they had once had kept him away from the situation until he could see that there would be no end unless he stepped in. His heart had died the night they had dueled.

When Fawkes had refused to bond with him all those years ago, Albus had performed some very risky black magic forcing one to form between them. Such a curse had gone out of use centuries ago with the decline of the slave trade and had almost faded out of existence. His forays into some of the more unpleasant parts of the wizarding world in search of news of the rising dark lord, had given him the opportunity to learn many different things that Hogwarts would never teach. Blood magic was a branch of rune magic that Albus had, had outlawed after his use of it to protect Harry within his relatives house. It wouldn't do after all for others to question the changes that he had added to the way in which the wards worked. Over the many years since his defeat of Grindelwald he had succeeded in ensuring many different types of magic had been taken out of the syllabus at the school. Blood magic had been one of the hardest to eliminate but others, such as dragonology and necromancy had been much easier due to their dangerous reputations. It was amusing the way that students never asked why there were so few lessons and students and such a large castle to be taught in. Hogwarts current syllabus could be easily taught in a building a fifth of the size. The many empty rooms were useful for storing the many objects that he owned that didn't fit with his image.

In Harry's first year he had stored the ancient and powerful mirror of Erised in a classroom, it could very easily have killed any number of students. Instead only Harry and that Weasley boy had found it by 'chance' during their midnight wanderings. At first he had wondered whether Harry would take him up on the unwritten offer of roaming the school out of hours, the boy had seemed so different from his father. Waiting until Christmas to send Potter the invisibility cloak had been one of his better ideas if he did say so himself. After years at the Dursley's, years where he had never really received any real presents (a pair of his Uncle's old socks didn't count)nor head anything positive about his parents such a thing as a cloak that had belonged to his father would be prized beyond all treasures. The information that he had gleaned from both Harry and Ron's visit to the mirror was information that would have been harder to gather any other way. Now it was in his hands, Harry desired family and therefore he would ensure for the rest of his time here, Harry would make bonds with people before they were taken away from him in one way or another. Remus Lupin had been allowed to leave his post at the school after Severus had ousted him to the children. The man had been one of the boy's first real link to his parents and they had begun to build a strong bond between them. Due to his many positions in the wizarding world Albus had the power to ensure that Remus could keep his place, but he hadn't so much as lifted a finger in defense of the man. Just as he hadn't for Sirius Black.

Somewhere in the school there was a broken vanishing cabinet, he at this moment couldn't remember exactly where he had put it, but a Slytherin had been pushed into it the year before. Sure he had gone missing for a few weeks, but he had turned up in the end. The boy had been found in a very unusual place, rammed into one of the girl's toilets if his memory served him properly. That event had triggered as much information to be divulged as the incident with the mirror. Before it, Albus had been unaware as to the location of the other cabinet, but now he knew that the other half of the pair resided in Borgin and Burkes and was undamaged unlike it's partner. At some point he would have to send Severus to purchase it. After all it simply wouldn't do for the leader of the light to be seen strolling down Knockturn alley and entering that particular store. Severs had a sufficiently shady background that he wouldn't stand out all too much.

Stroking his long silver beard, as he contemplated what to wear on Friday morning Albus found himself thinking of what he should do about the Potter boy. Until the very end of last year he had had an iron grip on the boy's consciousness. Ron and Hermione were able to manipulate his behaviors on a daily basis, twisting his perception of the wizarding world and pushing him into situations that the boy would have naturally avoided. The two had been his first ever friends and despite the many times both had proved themselves to be conceited, jealous and uninterested in his problems, Harry kept on taking them back. It was easy to see that the two were attracted to one another, them finally becoming what young people today called an item had catapulted the situation into a completely new territory. Ignoring Albus' strict instructions to continue to include Harry they had shut him out of their lives completely. Hurt, Potter had timidly confronted them and it had led to an argument unparalleled in Hogwarts history. Not even the legendary fight between Godric Gryffindor and Salazar Slytherin could be held up against it and they had destroyed an entire wing of the castle.

Ronald had been the one who had made the situation completely unsalvageable; the money that Albus had been steadily drip feeding into an anonymous account for the boy seemed to have gone to his head. He had been easy to bribe. Coming from a family that seemed to the untrained eye to be wobbling on the edge of bankruptcy and his mother's urgings had made the boy greedy for more than he had and intensely jealous of anyone that did. Upon being confronted by Harry he had begun to spill out every horrible thought that he had ever had about the boy, at one point saying that he had never liked Harry. If there was one thing that Harry Potter didn't like, it was being lied to and that had been the bombshell that had destroyed a decade of planning. Albus had tried to force the youngest Weasley to apologize to the boy, but he had only sneered at him and strutted away. It had been a rather Draco Malfoy like response. If the old man hadn't been trying desperately to hold together his plans for the future he could have laughed. Hermione Granger the muggle born girl who was also involved in this had been equally as uncooperative.

To make things even worse it seemed that Ginerva Weasley, the girl he had paid Molly handsomely to mold into the perfect Potter wife, had begun to fight off the various compulsion and behavior modification charms that had been placed upon her. Even the love potion Molly had been giving her since she was five was as effective as it once had been, despite the fact they had increased the dose. Time away from her mother's tutoring it appeared had given her confidence and individuality that just wouldn't do if he was to force her and Harry together. Word was going round the school that she was dating a boy called Michael Corner. Sitting in the draw of his desk was a marriage contract that he had drawn up between Molly and himself. It was a good thing that he had thought to make it, considering the way things were deviating from his plans. Now he had to enact it before Harry found his mate/s. Even though he was gay and the Weasley girl was obviously in love with another it would require them to have at least two children, Harry after all being the head of two ancient houses. Deep down within him there was a tiny piece of his soul not yet tainted by his less that savory actions over the last half century and it grieved this act of violation.

Harry's unexpected creature inheritance was just the unappetizing icing on top of a very dismal cake. Albus knew that it was only a matter of time before the faerie queen found out that the school had an unmated faerie submissive within its walls. There was only so long before the boy had to return to lessons, Poppy had told him that Potter was greatly weakened by the change and would need bed rest for some time yet. Once he was back attending his lessons word would get round there was no keeping a secret within its walls. But maybe he thought, running a highly wrinkled hand through his long beard maybe he could make that little fact work to his advantage. There were plenty of ears he could give false information to and know that before the day ended the whole school would know it.

To say that the queen would be greatly displeased with him would be an understatement. It might be enough to start a war between their peoples once again, that couldn't be allowed to happen. As other creatures would be sure to follow the Faerie who had never harmed or betrayed them rather than wizard kind who were notorious for not keeping promises. No-one wanted another Goblin war. What the boy had been through would horrify the entire community of Fae, to whom children were almost sacred. In the past there had been mass killings of Faerie children, by both muggles and wizards and they had only become all the more secretive and protective of them, especially the submissives. Despite their ability to look after themselves, they were seen as incredibly special due to the fact that in every other creature species they were in the minority.

Harry Potter was to be a beacon for the light a sacrifice to lay at the feet of Voldermort another man who he had manipulated during his time at school. He would have to o something desperate to keep his master plans on track and ensure that the less publically acceptable actions of his past weren't made public. Somehow he would have to get rid of Potter one way or another.


	18. Chapter 18

A/N: It seems like i've fixed my computer problems. Here's one of the longest chapters that i've written so far.

Chapter 18

The journey that Poppy and the healer who she had found out was called Iain Powell were taking to the Hospital wing was winding. Her curiosity and concern for him had made her take several detours on the way there, intentionally drawing out the journey.

"Iain, are you alright? Back there you looked petrified." The medi witch asked gently, her voice barely above a whisper as they were passed by a group of third year Ravenclaws who were earwigging. Iain stopped for a moment, holding the dragon hide bag to his chest, a blush spreading slowly over his cheeks. As it was moved the bag emitted a number of sounds, the clinking of glass and a metallic clunking sound. She was desperate to see what he had brought with him. She Had completed her training over fifty years ago and she was well aware that over the time tbat she had been a nurse at the school and the compulsory training that she took part in every year things had drastically changed. More and more muggle medicine was being integrated into magical healing, to complement existing methods. It would be an exciting time to be a trainee once again. There was no doubt that Iain would be teaching her a few new things before the day was through.

"It's just that, well I've only ever heard about the school and this is my first call out." His long thin fingers began nervously clutching the bag tighter to him. She smiled pleasantly at the boy, drawing him gently along with her as they passed a highly detailed tapestry of two wizards stirring a violent yellow potion. If she was able to read his age as well as she usually could there was no doubt that this was so, Iain could hardly have finished healer training. Normally having someone who was so green participating in a medical procedure of this nature would have her seriously asking herself whether they were capable of doing it, but the fact the Rufus Scrimgeor of all people trusted the boy meant that she would to. He was a hard man to please and an even harder one to impress. "My parents always warned me about Dumbledore and the emotions coming off him were pretty disturbing!" He shuddered, biting his lip softly.

At this further elaboration on behalf of Iain, Madame Pomfrey raised an eyebrow looking him up and down. Like all men who had yet to fully finish growing, Mr. Powell was lanky and looked like he could do with a good meal or two. He also moved like someone whose body had no idea where his arms and legs were, catching the toe of his shoes in the edges of carpets and now and again stubbing them against the stairs. Such behavior was indicative of someone who had just grown a great deal in a short period of time. Iain's hair was a average brown colour, styled in that long hairstyle many boys seemed to wear these days and that Poppy had seen their fathers wearing twenty or thirty years ago. It was strange how fashions came and went. All in all he seemed a well turned out boy, who while not knowing an ironing charm, her eye had been caught by a crease in the side of his robe that was not covered by the tabard, at least knew how to clean them.

"So you're an Empath then?" She asked barely able to restrain her excitement Empathy was a very complicated mind magic, almost impossible for wizards and witches to control. The difficulty lay in the ability to separate the emotions within a given environment and link them back up to the appropriate person. It was rather like being in a room with lots of people wearing perfume/cologne being able to name each perfume and say which person was wearing it. Those precious few who were able to use it either had some form of creature blood within them, either manifested or non manifested giving them a natural talent to use this type of magic (like parseltongues) or they had been taught mind magic from a very young age. Empathy was something that was prized in many different professions within the wizarding world, healing and law enforcement being the ones that stood to benefit the most from having an individual on the team with such impressive skills. Over the years the numbers of such people that were proficient in this highly prized skill had begun to dwindle slowly until the supply had almost dried up completely. It had begun when Dumbledore had removed it from the school's syllabus twenty five years ago. Poppy was unable to recall the exact reason the doddering old fool had given for doing so but knew it had, had to have been very convincing.

"Yes, it's one of the reasons that my mother wanted me to be homeschooled." Iain replied, his grey eyes had been soaking in all the sights the school had to offer throughout their trip. Now they were nearing the entrance to the Hospital Wing. They would have to be quiet so as not to disturb Harry, although he was probably awake, she had given him three books that Madame Pince had found on Faerie. Unknown to the students and to most of the staff, she was also the curator of a second library. This secondary library holding many different healing and potions texts as well as any books that belonged to subjects that were no longer taught in the school. Rowena Ravenclaw had made it and it was only accessible to the librarian, healer and potions master of the school. It was better that he was armed with as much knowledge as they were able to bestow upon him as soon as possible. Severus had made it his mission to get in contact with the Faerie queen. Harry was a boy who needed support and the best support that could be given to him would be from his own kind there were a lot of questions that he would definitely have once he had had the time in which to get over the shock. Although Severus had many contacts among the creature councils, it was proving very hard to find even a glimpse of a Faerie. Everyone knew that they were a very secretive and secluded people but this was beyond that. It seemed as if they had closed their community off completely from the rest of the world. There had been a tip off that the dryads in Cornwall knew something, but it had come to no avail.

With her mind now fully back on task Poppy smiled at the childish wonder that Iain was showing. The castle had the largest collection of paintings outside of Germany and also boasted a large collection of other artwork. It had been common during the Victorian times for members of the pure blood elite to make various gifts to the school, in good old Victorian philanthropic fashion. They had been all set for the improvement of the school that would teach their children. Aldabaran Black-Malfoy and his husband Gilbert had donated enough money for all the roofs of the castle to be replaced and outfitted the potions lab with sate of the art potions equipment. Some of the pieces had really lasted the test of time and they were still using them now. Upon seeing his first moving staircase he had yelped in shock, lime green robes swinging wildly with the sudden movement of his body, Poppy was finding it all very amusing. This young medi healer was almost as cute as Harry could be, not that she would ever tell either of them.

* * *

><p>Luna Lovegood was on a mission. Harry hadn't been seen in well over a week now and she had learnt through the gossip chain that he was being kept in the hospital wing. Harry had been her first ever friend and the person that she had been able to fully open up to. With her father becoming more and more ill over the years and witnessing her mother's death she was someone with a lot of issues.<p>

Together they were able to support each other through the bad times. During the summer they had ensured that they could stay in touch through magical diaries she had enchanted. Through that contact she knew that he was taking the death of his godfather very badly, but he was also keeping something from her and that was tearing her apart. Even when she had been at her worst, her most anxious and socially phobic he had been by her side and listened to all of her woes no matter how large or small, scary or self centered. Never once had she been able to scare him away from her unlike the 'friends' that she had in the past. Back then Luna had been terrified of letting people in lest they leave her or use her secrets against her. The moment her mother had died, her heart had broken. Once in what her best friend had called the witching hours, they had both giggled together at the top of the astronomy tower at this once he had explained what it meant, Luna had explained how she saw her life. When she had seen the wooden casket lowered into the ground that rainy Tuesday after her mother had passed on, the flawless mirror of her life had been hit with a sledgehammer as she realized that her mother would never wake up again. Now she was left trying to put the pieces back together. It was an impossible task...the most important piece having been taken away from her and the rest crushed to powder.

Harry had sighed, curling up against her, holding her hand as she cried properly for the first time in a long, long while. Her beloved father had been trying so hard to hold things together over the years and she had needed to be strong in order to navigate them through the dangerous waters to a safe haven. They had moved house leaving behind the bad memories, but taking the good with them. Over time things had become easier and the pain of loss dulled from a stabbing pain to a longing ache.

Now it was her chance to pay Harry back for everything that he had done for her and her father, whose health was starting to slowly fail.

It took a moment for her to attain the facial expression that she had been aiming for, thinking back over the past year had brought tears to her blue eyes it wouldn't take much more for her to actually start to cry. Professor Flitwick's heavy oaken office door stood ajar, meaning that he was available to talk, two seconds after she had arrived it swung completely open, her head of house standing just inside the room, wearing a pair of blue striped pajamas and a concerned look. Then she began to cry and he became alarmed, beckoning her into the room proper, holding out a clean spotted handkerchief.

"I'm sorry Sir!" She sobbed, bringing the handkerchief up to her eyes and furiously wiping away the tears that were dropping from them. The picture that she made was one of abject misery and sadly over the past five years it had been quite a common scene for the Ravenclaw head of house. No matter what he did to the bullies who made Luna's life a misery they merely went underground before cranking it up a notch. In the beginning it had only been calling her names, but to an only child with a serious case of PTSD, who had never really left home and who had looked after her father for years, it had been especially hard to cope with. Everything had culminated in the March of her first year at Hogwarts when they had found out that her father wasn't very well. Magic could heal a lot of things very quickly, but mental illness wasn't one of them and it still carried a lot of stigma despite the many new successful treatments for it. Luna thanked whatever deity was listening everyday for the fact that he was still with her. Veela mates were very rarely able to cope after the death of their soul mate. It had only been the fact that she desperately needed him that had kept Xenophilius somewhat tied to the land of the living as she was getting older he was slipping more and more.

Once the ravenclaws had found out however they had begun to make fun of him and that was one thing that Luna couldn't stand. Her father was a strong man; he coped with severe depression every day. He was a fighter; Xeno was the type of man who didn't let his condition rule his life. Sure there were some really bad days that neither of them wanted to think about, Luna was sure everyone had days like that now and again. There were also the good days where they both felt like an ordinary family with all the time in the world.

That night she had ended up outside the door of her head of house, robes stained with paint, her left shoe missing a vivid purple bruise on her face and tears flowing freely down her cheeks. Her feet had brought her there of their own volition without any consultation from her mind which had been wandering. Finding herself at the man's door had been comforting, before then she had been wondering whether or not she would end up doing something desperate.

Once Harry had brought her under his wings the bullying had pretty much come to an end. Harry had shown her protection and she had showed him unconditional love. Each was a feeling that the other had never really known until that point.

"It's just," Here she sobbed burying her entire face into the handkerchief as he led her to sit in a sturdy wood and brocade chair by his desk, before closing the door behind them (giving the conversation the privacy that it so obviously needed)and taking a seat next to her.

"You're not being bullied again are you Luna dear I thought that they had let off now that you're friends with Neville, Harry and those rambunctious Weasley twins?" Professor Flitwick asked concernedly levitating his silver breakfast tray from its place on a rickety old oak table that he had once told her belonged to his father. Upon the silver tray lay an empty plate covered in toast crumbs, no doubt the remains of his breakfast, a teapot decorated with small violet flowers, two mismatched cups and saucers as well as a bowl full of sugar cubes and a small milk jug. As he waited for her to answer his question, he set about making tea for them both.

"Harry's my best friend and he'd been missing all week and no one will tell me where he is and I'm really worried that he's ill and..." Once again she burst into heavy sobs that racked her whole frame, frantically rocking back and forth in her seat. That was the final straw for Flitwick who had always had problems dealing with overly emotional females even more so with this one who was going through so much. Every teacher had a favourite student, no matter how unprofessional it was to do so, for Minerva it was Harry Potter, Pomona Hannah Abbot, for him it was Luna. No matter how bad the bullying had gotten or how bad things were at home her light hadn't gone out. Regardless of the fact that he had promised Severus, Minerva and Poppy that he wouldn't divulge information about Harry to others the poor girl was obviously distraught. Even though it was common knowledge that Harry had gone through a creature inheritance no0one knew exactly what was going on outside of the very small group of staff that could be trusted and the ministry.

In no time he was promising the Lovegood child that he would take her to see Harry this afternoon and that she had better bring Harry's other close friends with her. There was every possibility that the Weasley twins would find a way to get into the place at some point, despite the .various privacy charms there was about the place, At least this way it would give the team working on Harry the time to do their business undisturbed and deal with the aftermath of removing the foreign magic, before they were descended upon by worried teenagers. Filius smiled Harry could also do with his friends by his side at a time such as this.


	19. Chapter 19

Chapter 19

In her office, Madame Pomfrey was pulling out Harry's bulging medical file once again, going through it with Iain as she waited for the two Aurors to join them. They were concentrating on the abnormal scan results that the glamour had been causing. Before they could start to discuss how the procedure was to be carried out, they would everyone who was to take part to be present. It wouldn't do for someone to miss something that could prove to be vita later on. She would not have Harry's life put at risk in such a way. He had been pushed into situations where his life had been on the line unnecessarily, too many times in the past. It was time that someone looked after him. Hopefully what they were planning to do would ensure that Harry was given a greater level of independence and they could start to meet his needs. All the magic that was tied up in maintaining all those spells would finally be released enabling the boy to reach his true potential.

"I can't believe that Harry has been dealing with this heavy a magical drain for so long!" The younger healer cried raising a thin hand to his mouth in shock momentarily before lowering it to fist in his robe. The material clenched in his hands wrinkling even more than before. "His magical core must be very strong." He then turned to his bag, emptying the contents onto one of her unused rolling medical trolleys that she used within the infirmary. Curious as to what he had brought with him, Poppy stood beside him, helping Iain to group the various pieces of equipment. From his bag the St Mungos healer was pulling nine large chunks of purple rock and placing them gently on the metal and a small clear stone. This was the reason that he had been sent to help Harry, she knew it. Although the man was obviously a highly skilled healer and an empath (which was a gift that would help them greatly with a teenage boy who was content with internalizing emotion), but the knowledge of crystal healing would be a god send. Without the power she could feel humming in the air they would be exhausted after all of this was done if they were even able to remove the glamour in the first place. Albus was after all a very powerful man and his spell work was some of the best in the world. There was no way that anyone of them could know what they might encounter today, especially with the man's emerging lack of respect for the lives of others.

The door to the office swung open causing them to look up from their task as it squeaked and the two aurors entered. "Albus Dumbledore has been escorted from the premises. We'll need to talk to Minerva later." Poppy Pomfrey gave the man a look that would ensure that he told her the whole story at a later date. Now they would be able to get on with the job in hand and not before time either.

Auror Goldstein carefully pulled out the recording scroll that his head of department had insisted was present, and added a copy of the boy's updated notes to the case file that he was carrying. They were currently crammed into wooden high backed chairs the matron had conjured after banishing her beloved armchairs to one of the infirmary's many storage rooms. Unfortunately there just wasn't the space in her poky little office for all four of them to sit in such comfort and the Matron wouldn't trust any other room. Her office and the entire infirmary were imbued with a very complex set of wards. These wards were responsible for ensuring that the status of anyone within her care could not be talked about without their permission. Of course there were exceptions to this as there should be. Parents would be informed unless the student was seventeen and other members of staff sometimes needed to be informed in order to keep the individual safe. The chairs had all been arranged in a semi circle around her desk and the medical trolley so that they could all see the information and equipment that they were talking about. It made life a little easier for them all.

"As Harry's medical liaison and general healer I would like to make a few things known to the group under the magical oath that was sworn in regards to this case by you all." Poppy commanded, once again pulling out her trusty clipboard and notepad. It was a highly useful tool. In the corner of her eye she could see the quill beginning to write, a faint scratchy noise filled the air. As they all nodded, with interested looks on their faces, she continued. "Harry has a large number of spells, charms and other magical traces upon him, all of which correspond to the magical signature of one Albus Dumbledore. It is currently unknown how many are placed upon him, what the majority of them are and the exact time at which they were cast." Here she took a breath letting the information sink into those assembled around her.

"Harry has also shown at least one attempt to self harm that we know of since his transformation that we are aware of, so i want you all to tread carefully. I will need one of you," Poppy demanded, looking over at the two aurors, who were sat together at the end of the row of chairs. Both looked angry at the extent of what had been inflicted to the boy. It was plain to see that although it was likely that the situation was going to become grimmer and grimmer as they uncovered exactly what spells were involved, they were in it for the long haul. Kingsley and Harry had already developed a loosely bonded relationship between them and Gareth had a son the same age as Harry at the school. "To help me make sense of the tangle that's around him, I don't want us pulling them off and accidentally triggering something. Harry is not to be put at any more risk than is absolutely necessary."

"I knew bringing the crystals would be a good idea." Iain commented. They all turned to look at him and he blushed prettily once again, brushing a hand nervously through his messy brown hair. "In crystal healing, the amethyst is associated with many different things, the most powerful being spiritual awareness, this will help Harry to guide us, through his subconscious awareness of his body to show us where the glamour starts and ends." Poppy smiled encouragingly at him, the removal of the glamour had been the part that she was most concerned about. "Its other properties include meditation, balance, the boosting of psychic powers, promoting inner peace, healing and positive transformations. Amethyst also has a lot of lesser powers but I won't go into them now."

"I wish Hogwarts had taught crystal healing." Madame Pomfrey sighed it was one of the most powerful forms of healing that there was in the world. Not only that but it was one of the more passive and unobtrusive forms as well. A person could often have a piece of jewelry made with a particular stone or group of stones to treat a particular ailment. Once again it was something that had been struck off the Hogwarts curriculum, though this time it wasn't Albus to blame. With advances in healing and muggle medicine, using old bits of rock had gone out of fashion during the early Victorian period. It was seen aa a barbaric pagan thing that didn't have any standing in the modern world. Such attitudes were found to those entering into the wizarding world as hilarious due to how behind the magical world was from the muggle one. Sheltering yourself away tended to result in your progress stagnating and the rest of the world passing you by. It was a shame really there was so much out there that if given the chance and the motivation people could create new wonderful things. The fact that they all practically lived in the late medieval period meant that many muggleborns left after they had completed their education taking their talents with them.

Iain smiled at her, teeth blindingly white. "My family is descended from the ancient Welsh druids of Anglesey it's a skill that we pass down to each successive generation. I was told that this would be a tricky case so I brought nine just in case." In arithmancy three was the most powerful number and nine was obviously three, three times. Hopefully the boost this would give them all would be enough.

The meeting soon wound down after that, each participant readying the various pieces of equipment that they would need in order to accomplish the task that lay before them. Iain was pushing the trolley with its nine stones and several pieces of chalk towards the door. Apparently the chalk was for a ritual that Iain would carry out if, as they released the magic that was wrapped up in the various enchantments surrounding the boy, it caused him to go into shock. It would help to stabilize his organs and minimize the damage caused to them. Just as they were about to leave, Poppy remembered what she was going to ask him earlier.

"Iain!" She called; he turned back towards her, almost losing several of his stones in the process as the trolley was pulled roughly to one side. "If you wouldn't mind, would you take off the tabard? It's just that Harry won't react well to it. He's fiercely independent and he won't like to be thought of as a child." After raising a thin eyebrow, he smiled nervously, before undoing the ties at his sides and pulling the tabard off over his head, folding it and placing it in his bag. Kingsley chuckled, his golden earring swinging as he shook his head from side to side before helping him to gather the stones into the centre of the trolley once more.

Madame Pomfrey herself had a little chuckle at the sight they all made, hurrying across the infirmary to Harry's bedside. No doubt that they made an interesting picture. She patted her apron pocket, feeling the bulge where she had placed a calming potion and a pain relief potion just in case Harry needed them. Though she doubted that he would takes them voluntarily. Due to the way Harry had reacted to the last potion that she had given him, these had been made up to half the dosage that she would usually give to a student his age. Hopefully with this lesser dosage Harry would be less affected.

* * *

><p>Harry was momentarily shocked by the small pile of books that appeared upon his bed, but his natural curiosity won out over any sense of self preservation that he had. On any normal day Harry would have questioned where the books had come from, who had sent them and a plethora of other vital questions. It would be wrong to assume that the teenager, who had so many people either out to get him or use his fame andor fortune for their own gains, would always be on guard. Without having grown up in the wizarding world Harry was often left out of the loop, so much knowledge was passed down by word from father to son, mother to daughter. There were so many different things that he didn't know. There were many different dangerous objects in the wizarding world, after all hadn't there been Tom Riddle's diary, which had been inhabited by a ghost like memory that had tried to kill Ginny.

There didn't seem to be anything scary or weird about these books except there titles. All three of the leather bound volumes were a dark shade of green that glittered in the bright morning light and seemed to be made out of basilisk skin.

"Wow Basilisks are really rare." He exclaimed as he bent over to pick them up, reading anything would be good to alleviate the boredom that he was sure would kill him if he stayed stuck in this place without anything to do for much longer. Plus it would help keep his mind off the medical procedure that he would be having later. It had been so long since he had been involved in any medical situation that was beyond having a basic scan. Even when in the muggle world he had had little experience with any medical procedures. Every time his mind wondered of in that direction Harry found himself having to desperately find something to distract himself, in order to fend off a panic attack. Ten minutes ago such a thing had happened and he had had to count every single tile in the curtained off space over and over again until it went away.

The surface of the book was oddly silky, exactly how he remembered the basilisk in the chamber of secrets being, as he ran his fingers over the cover his eyes were drawn to the title, written in guilt letters. **Queen Aetheldreda's guide to the Faerie court. **He moved it aside to see the other two books each with their own title **Faerie Fact and Faerie Fiction **and **Submissive Faerie, what you need to know!** Harry grinned at last it seemed he was going to get some information. It was time to educate himself about that had happened to his body and what he should expect about what he could expect for the rest of his life. He couldn't go any further forward at the moment without more knowledge.

As he settled himself down on the bed, his back to the wall for support and opened the cover for the first time, a small light blue note fell out of it. In black ink was a message from the school nurse, it looked as if she had written it in a great hurry.

**Dear Harry,**

**I have sent you these books, so that you can answer some of the questions that are no doubt flitting around your head. I'm sure that there are a few that you would be embarrassed to ask either myself, Severus or Minerva about. **

**They (the books) are from the school library, but we have owl ordered you your own personal copies as well as several other books about Faerie for you from Norway, where creature laws are much less strict, and are yours to keep. No you will not pay me back Harry James Potter! **

**As your creature inheritance was a very rare one and the school does not have much information on them these books are a way for us to help inform you of the things that have changes about you, the society that you belong to and what you can expect now. Faerie have lived a life sheltered from the rest of the world due to their self imposed exile after the creature hunts of the past. As you can see from this there are very few books that we would consider to be of any use to you. You may find that many of the books have different takes on the same information. **

**I hope that they are useful to you and that they help keep your mind of things, it seems that the meeting will take a little longer than expected as Dumbledore is kicking up a bit of a fuss. **

**Madame Pomfrey**

Harry smiled the matron knew him all too well. He folded the note up, carefully placing it on the wooden bedside cabinet, making a mental note to thank her later.

The three books sat in his lap, and he spent the next five minutes trying to decide which of them to read. In the end he resorted to using eenie meanie minee mo to choose. The winning book as it were was the book about submissive Faeries. He stroked his hand over the sparkling cover feeling the slight wear and tear the book had been through in its life. As he opened the cover, is eyes were caught by the large picture on the first page. It was of a short man, with brown hair and blue eyes holding a small baby.

"How wonderful!" Harry exclaimed with a tone filled heavily with sarcasm. Just because he could get up the duff didn't mean that he was going to become a happy little 'housewife' who dreamed of babies and getting married. Although he did want to find a partner and have children, he wanted to live his life before settling down and having children. At the point of death, he didn't want any regrets. He hastily turned the page and began to read.

It didn't take too long to finish the book which was only a few hundred pages long. There had been a lot of information that had soothed him, answering a lot of questions that he had developed. But it had also provoked many new questions to swim around his head.

"Eggs!" His voice cracked slightly, in his astonishment at this weird turn of events. He had begun to get around the fact that he had the ability to get pregnant, the book containing several diagrams showing the anatomy of a submissive male. He had been imagining that he would be giving birth to a live baby like the rest of the human population. Though, as he thought about it, he wasn't human anymore so normal rules of biology didn't seem to apply.

He was apparently supposed to give birth to a fricking egg or even more than one. That was faintly disturbing on a level that he couldn't even think about.


	20. Chapter 20

**A/n: Hello everyone! I'm amazed yet again by you all, Over a hundred reviews and we're barely even started. I wonder how long it will take before we get to 200? On another note, i've started a blog where i'm going to post things about the story, how far i've got, bits of head canon, when the next chapter has been updated etc. There is a link over on my profile for anyone that wants to have a little look...**

**Chapter 20**

When Neville woke up on Friday morning, Seamus and Dean were already dressing, Ron still sleeping like the dead in his own bed. Fred and George were curled up on Fred's bed over an old piece of parchment that Neville knew was the Marauder's map. No doubt they were looking for Harry with the size of the castle and the amount of students it was going to take some time before they could locate their missing friend. His eyes were then drawn, as they were every morning since Harry had disappeared to the boy's bed. The curtains were still half closed like he had left them and he sheets rumpled, quilt hanging half on half off of it. Harry was a very active dreamer and often had nightmares; though he tried to hide them with a silencing charm it was painfully obvious to those who knew him. He couldn't lie for the life of him at the best of times. Harry often wandered around resembling an inferi having a bad hair day, with dark bags under his eyes showing that he had, had little to no sleep scaring the first years. Not that that made him any less cute than he was. Neville shuddered at the thought of Harry finding out that he thought that he was cute. The boy could be severely violent when he wanted to be.

As he pulled himself out of bed Neville was able to see a fully dressed Seamus and Dean arguing over who were the best Scottish football team. It was an argument that they had had so many times that Neville could almost quote word for word what they were going to say.

"I say Celtic is the best, they're always top of the league!" Seamus stated, hands on hips, his green canvas school bag lying by his feet on the carpeted floor. It was probably about time, that they started to do a little cleaning in the dorm. In the days without Harry it had become obvious how much they relied on him in order so that they didn't become drowned in the rubbish that they had a habit of accumulating. Harry had a habit of sorting people's things out and cleaning in his spare periods. Over the boys had tried to distract him from what could at times be considered to be somewhat obsessive.

Dean was smirking evilly, eyes half closed, one eyebrow lifted on the other side of his bed rifling through a draw in his bedside cabinet. Rustling and clunking noises could be heard as he blindly searched for something within it.

"You only like them because their kit is green and white with a shamrock on the breast." Laughed Dean finally finding what he was looking for, a new quill and his class timetable. He struggled for some time in vain, to close it once more but the used pieces of parchment, odd sweet or two and his spare pair of gloves prevented this from happening easily. It took him ramming the thing closed repeatedly unsuccessfully several times before Dean gave it up as a bad job.

The short stocky Irish boy laughed throwing one of his unwashed sweaty socks at his boyfriend's face, before bolting for the door. Neville laughed uncontrollably as it hit the West Ham fanatic square in the face. Unfortunately for Seamus, Dean, who had always been fast, had managed to grab hold of the back of his shirt, resulting in them falling to the floor with a loud bang. Neville averted his eyes from what came next, blushing fiercely despite them being his friends and the fact that he supported their relationship fully; there were just some things that he never wanted to see. How Ron hadn't woken up with all the noise that was being made was beyond him.

"Oy love birds break it up!" Fred shouted from his place on the bed, a smile on his face as George blew a long wolf whistle, their eyes never leaving the map that they were scanning for Harry. Seamus giggled as Dean stiffened; looking mortified, having forgotten that the pair weren't alone. Dean had always been rather shy.

"Not that the view isn't nice we just don't want to be scarred for life." George called, finally folding away the map and picking up his beaten leather shoulder bag from the floor and putting it on. He visibly sagged from the added weight that his school equipment added to his frame. It couldn't be healthy the amount of weight that they were expected to carry. How Hermione had carried all the course books she had needed in their third year, without developing curvature of the spine, Neville couldn't comprehend. One would think that they would learn the feather light spell in the first years at the school, but no. It was art of the seventh year curriculum. Seamus, who was now bright red in the face, then proceeded to fling the other sock at the two of them, but missed by rather a large margin.

It was time to get dressed he decided, especially if he wanted to get any decent breakfast this morning. For some reason over the years the food being offered at meals had seemed to become unhealthier as time went on. High calorie foods had never really interested him, not even as a small child. When his Grandmother decided to give him a treat, something that didn't happen all too often, she always brought him his favourite food, grapes. Grapes in his opinion were better than any sweet he had ever tasted and were something that his family was happy to give him on a much more frequent basis than he would ever have been given chocolate. It was one of the many perks that came with having a favourite food that was simple and healthy.

He, Harry, Seamus and Dean were all very health conscious people and the four of them bemoaned the loss of many of their favourite dishes. Dean's stepfather was a fitness instructor and ran the household like a fitness boot camp at times. As such Dean had learned to eat what he was told to. In first year they had served a wonderful summer fruit pudding at the Halloween feast. It was made by lining a glass bowl with whole-meal bread, and filling the space with stewed fruit and the juice. You then covered the top of the bowl with another layer of bread and cooled it. Once the juice had soaked in you could turn it upside down and the pudding would come out, looking slightly like a jelly. Harry had been practically drooling from the mouth all over the table and it soon became his favourite dessert. Other foods such as Seamus' favourite quiche with tomatoes and no crust had also disappeared never to be seen again.

It was depressing really. You couldn't hope to reach your magical potential if you weren't healthy. A healthy body and mind went a long way towards stabilizing your magical core and helping it to develop.

All of them had been worried as they saw Harry eating less and less, though it didn't seem to be having too adverse an effect on the boy. Neville had, from Harry's first year been trying to coax him into eating normal portions. By now they had a working plan that slowly introduced Harry to larger portions and heavier higher calorie foods throughout the year, but Harry didn't seem to be making any progress so far this year. He would have gone to see Madame Pomfrey about it, but he knew that Harry wouldn't appreciate him going behind his back and that any effort on behalf of the nurse to force him to eat would only result in disaster. Fred and George had confronted him about it and the tiny teenager had told them that the non-healthy foods, like the Toad-in-the-hole and Beef Wellington made him feel really queasy if he ate them more than once or twice a week.

Everyone at Gryffindor table could understand Harry's queasiness from time to time, what with Ron's total lack of table manners. He ate like a man who was starving, shoveling food into his mouth, gravy dripping down his chin and trying to engage them all in conversation with a mouthful of sausage. It was particularly bad at feasts were he seemed to think that the whole occasion was a challenge to see who could eat the most. Alicia once said that she'd seen pigs that had more table manners than the youngest male Weasley. No one wanted to sit across the table from him, as every time you looked up **that** was what you would see. The sight was enough to put you off your dinner for weeks.

Thinking of Ronald Weasley reminded Neville of something that the unpleasant boy had said yesterday in the classroom where Dean had smacked him one.

"Why did Ron say that Harry was a Faerie? "

Outside the curtained off area in which Harry was, the team that was to treat him were waiting. Madame Pomfrey was going to go in first and explain to him what was going on, before she began to introduce them one by one. Harry was known to not trust strangers and considering the fact that he had, had to be medicated earlier in order to calm him down not so long ago, they didn't want to overwhelm him. If they all marched in there at the same time that was what was going to happen, if this was to be pulled off, with as little trouble as possible the teenager needed to not see them as a threat. If he perceived them as such, it was possible that he could reject any of the magic that they would have to pump into him in order to do this and in an extreme case; Harry could perform some accidental magic that could put them all in danger.

As she slipped through the curtain she once again checked that she had the necessary potions with her once more. This seemed to be becoming an obsessive habit for her. If it were any other patient that they were administering aid to, there would be nowhere near as much apprehension, but Harry was a trouble magnet and that was setting them all on edge. Administering them at the beginning of the treatment would save the boy a lot of pain and anxiety later on, but it would make it harder for him to guide them in their plan. Having Harry in a lucid enough state so that his subconscious mind could steer them through the glamour was absolutely vital. Without such help from the boy, they would really be in a pickle. In the end it would be up to Harry whether he took them now or waited until he needed them.

Once inside for what seemed to be the hundredth time over the past two days, Poppy could see Harry reading one of the books that she had sent him. Hopefully the knowledge that they could impart would be helpful to Harry in coming to terms with the fact that he was no longer human and answer at least some of the questions that he had begun to think of. It only looked like he was on one of the earlier chapters, the other two books sitting in a neat pile next to her note on the bedside table. She cleared her throat loudly, increasing the sound of her footsteps as she neared him in order not to frighten him with her sudden appearance. Harry was a very jumpy boy, but what with everything that had happened in his life Poppy didn't blame him. During her long career Poppy had seen a large variety of patients, with as equally large array of illness and injuries, which last time that she had last had to do this was during the war with Grindelwald. Having a mass murderer, whom you had managed to personally offend on numerous occasions out to get you, was not something that the vast majority of people would even jokingly call fun. How he had managed to adjust so well was nothing short of a miracle. As she neared the bed he lifted his head placing the book on the bed beside him.

"Thank you for the books Madame Pomfrey." Harry exclaimed excitedly as he realized it was her that had come to see him. Such a polite boy, she had never known.

* * *

><p>"Its fine Harry we do it for everyone with a creature inheritance, but usually they have someone in their family that can provide them with support through it." She said as she brushed an errant lock of hair out of his eyes, "The procedure will start soon, but first I'm going to introduce you to the people involved you know one of them." At this she returned to the curtain, stuck her head out and returned followed by a man wearing bright green robes. "This is Iain Powell; he is the medi healer from St Mungo's who will be helping me to look after you whilst we carry out the procedure."<p>

"It's nice to meet you Harry." Iain stated, his thick welsh accent washing over Harry, slowly making him feel more at ease. There was something about a welsh accent that made him calm why that was he didn't know but still... Maybe it was the fact that no matter what a welsh person said, they always sounded calm and non-threatening even if they were shouting. The healer was pulling a trolley behind him, like one that the school matron had used to bring him his breakfast on, but piled on it were several large purple rocks. The power that was coming off them was making Harry feel light headed and even though he was sitting down Harry felt a little dizzy. It wasn't a bad feeling, more like a fizzy having had too many sweets feeling. There was too much energy in your body feeling. Aunt Petunia would have called it 'ready to bounce of the bloody walls' in that high waspish manner of that she used when highly displeased.

He toyed with the idea of stockpiling sweets to eat on the way back to the Dursley's house, eating as many as he could in the hour before the train pulled into the platform for optimal sugar buzz. They would not be pleased of course, but it would also mean that he had at least one very high calorie meal before returning to the Spartan diet that they fed him on during the summer months. He sighed happily this summer would be the last that he spent there, and it wouldn't even be as long as the rest. Maybe after his seventeenth birthday, he would be able to go to Gringotts and see if his parents had, had any other properties other than the one in which they died. He didn't think that he could live there especially after what had happened.

"Hello." Harry replied quietly not looking away from

The peculiar rocks after all they could be dangerous. There was no knowing in the wizarding world just what an object was capable of doing.

"Are you feeling alright Harry?" Both asked him at precisely the same time moving towards him in absolute synchronization.

"I feel a bit dizzy and sick. What are those? "He replied, pointing to the strange objects on the trolley. Madame Pomfrey raised one of her graying eyebrows, showing that she had seen his quick change of topic, but would let the situation slide for now at least. After all there was nothing that she could do to disprove it. Any diagnostic spells that she might use would only come up showing the results that the glamour was set up to show.

"Those are amethysts that I will be using in healing you." The small healer stated, gently lifting them off the cart one by one and placing them in a circle around him on the bed as Madame Pomfrey slowly pushed him down into a laying position as she had before. It seemed very strange that they were going to use some weird rocks to make him better, but he went with it. After all, out of all the adults that he knew Madame Pomfrey was the one he trusted the most and she would do everything in her power to keep him safe. She had proven that to him. At her prodding he quickly divested himself of his pajama shirt, handing it to her whilst flushing a deep crimson colour.

The nurse took the shirt with her as she returned to the curtain. Harry craned his neck to see the two aurors whom he knew would also be taking part in this. His legs were shaking and he tightly fisted his hands in the bed sheets, the repetitive motions giving him some comfort. 'Stop being a complete girl.' He thought to himself furiously.

"I have a calming potion for you to take Harry if you want it." The Matron called as she re-entered the room without the shirt and the two aurors trailing after her. Harry smiled as he saw that one of them was Kingsley, but the other, he was sure he had never met before. Kingsley stayed near to the curtain standing guard over the whole proceeding, right hand fingering his wand. In his presence Harry felt much safer; the man was a well known and well respected auror. Over the time that Harry had spent in number twelve Grimauld place the two had become particularly close, Kingsley taking Harry under his wing as much as he could with Dumbledore's infrequent visits, a depressed Sirius haunting the halls and an irate Molly Weasley stomping around the place. Thinking of Sirius made his chest clench tightly and he fought the urge to cry that was slowly building. No matter how much he wished that his godfather hadn't died that wouldn't bring him back, life was just cruel like that.

"You know Kingsley of course," Once again the woman was brushing down her skirts it seemed to be a nervous habit that she had picked up. ""This is Gareth Goldstein. He has a son that attends the school, in Hufflepuff if I'm not mistaken." The man smiled, showing the two golden incisors that he had in the top of his mouth. Harry wondered if they were the result of having his front teeth knocked out by some criminal or whether the man had decided to invest in gold. The prices were so high at the moment it was almost unbelievable. After the awkward introductions were made the procedure began.


	21. Chapter 21

A/n: Hello everyone you'll finally get to see what's under that glamour in this chapter. I hope you enjoy! Also there's a little bit of out favourite potions master in here also.

Chapter 21

Harry was laying flat on his back surrounded by purple rocks as Madame Pomfrey, Healer Iain Powell and Auror Goldstein stood over him. To say that the experience was intimidating and just a little bit scary was putting it very lightly. It felt like he was lying on an operating table, like he had seen in one of the soap operas his aunt obsessed over, waiting for them to bring out the knives, or scalpels as they called them, and begin to cut into his skin. Harry shivered violently, his hair moving to cover his eyes once more. He had refused the calming potion that she had kindly offered him a few moments before, there was no way that he was taking something like that again without being forced. This was a situation in which he wanted to be completely alert and ready for whatever was going to happen. That last calming draught that he had been given had made him feel very weird. Now, he supposed he knew why some people chose to do drugs despite the dangers that came along with them.

* * *

><p>Both of the healers were chanting some sort incantation over him in Latin. Exactly the same one as Pomfrey had done before, it tickled somewhat as it probed through the many layers of spells, gently worming its way down to his magical core. The exact same moment that they had begun the chant, the quill and scroll the aurors had brought with them began writing away on its own, rather like the quick quotes quill that Rita Skeeter had used to write with. It was furiously scratching away, the blue feather almost a blur.<p>

Auror Goldstein was chanting something completely different and as Harry could feel the magic of the Healers slipping between the spells, the magic of the auror was causing them to become visible. All over his body there were spells tightly entwined with one another a mismatch of vibrant colours ranging in hue from pale green to the darkest black that he had ever seen. Harry thought that he must have looked an awful lot like a Christmas tree, strung with lights. He giggled slightly hysterically, despite the fact, that the sheer amount of foreign magic covering his body was making him feel sick to the stomach. How could he not have noticed any of this being done to him and how had he walked around with it on for so long? Madame Pomfrey looked grim, steadfastly continuing her chanting the healer looked slightly sick and the auror looked incensed, his cheeks bright red. From where Harry was lying it looked as if he was biting his lip savagely to prevent himself from saying something.

After a solid fifteen minutes of chanting, they had finally made their way through hundreds of spells to the glamour, there would be no way of breaking that until they had broken the myriad of complex spells that lay above it. It really was going to be a long day and Harry really wished that his friends could be there with him. Especially Luna there was nothing that they could keep from one another. He was sure that she would have something to say about everything that had gone on over the past week and a bit. Maybe just maybe, he would have liked her to hold his hand and tell him that everything was going to be alright. That was what family did for one another after all.

All the adults in the room began to get more and more troubled as each new spell made its self known by lighting up. Every spell had its own unique colour, the same as it had when cast normally, making it possible to identify the spell used. The chant that Gareth had been using was one that the aurors used to see who had cast a spell on another (sometimes even an object), what it was and when this had occurred. Such a spell was vital in law enforcement as it showed without doubt the facts of a case. No matter what the people involved said, the spells never lied! He also took the chance to snap a picture of the boy on the magical camera that they had brought with him in order to show the level of spell work encasing the teenager, sapping his magical strength and the nature of the glamour. All the evidence that they could gather would be vital during the trial.

Much of the foreign magic covering Harry was considered to be 'light' spells which varied in colour greatly from red to blue to orange purple and green. Intermixed with these was also a great deal of darker spells many of which were highly illegal and a few which were even black in colour. Such spells were highly dangerous and had been outlawed in every member state of the I.C.W (International. Community of Wizards). This was beginning to spiral out of their hands and those of the ministry at this rate the trial would be an international incident.

It was going to be a long drawn out complicated process to untangle each of the spells individually, what they had was hundreds of individual strands that were tightly woven together. Somehow they would have to unpick each one individually, whilst being careful not to trigger it, nor to set of any booby traps that had been laid down among them. Once it came to actually removing them, it was vital that they ensured that everyone understood the repercussions, removing each one was going to have on the boy. A calculated risk assessment would have to be made. For example there were a few spells that if they were to remove them without any planning could cause other spells to become active. They would therefore need to know what each and every one involved was. Essentially Dumbledore had booby trapped the boy.

The dictating quill was scribbling madly away, documenting each and every spell encasing the boy, where before it had been blurring slightly now its speed was so fast that the feather looked stationary. Kingsley had put way his wand and was reading them out to the others, as he was the only one not currently highly involved in the healing process it made a great deal of sense.

"There's a confundus, anti-disapperition..." His smooth voice was vital in stopping them from panicking as the list went on and on without seeming as if it would ever come to an end, the scroll extending as each new spell was detected. Eventually he had to stop reading them out, his throat becoming dry and painful yet the scroll was now reaching the floor and beging to curl in on itself. At this rate the small space that they were working in would be filled with the parchment. They all breathed a sigh of relief as its progress slowed. The large amethyst crystals were doing a great job of keeping Harry calm and boosting the amount of magic that was getting though the layers of spells. Each amythyst was acting like a megaphone to their magic, aplifying it. It had meant that it had taken much less time to get to this point that anyone had expected and a lot less energy. Now it was just a matter of carefully removing every spell before they could even think about making a start on the glamour lying beneath them.

The least tangled spell and obviously the newest was a compulsion charm, working together they neutralized it in a matter of seconds. Once it had been removed they had begun to feel Harry's magic responding to the weight that was being lifted off of his magical core. By the time they were half way through, the latent magic within harry was responding to them and in some of the weaker spells was breaking them itself, without the boys conscious input. That was something they had definitely not expected to happen, but it was welcome. Despite the stones help in healing Harry they could feel themselves begin to lag a little. Even so they were determined to see this through to the end.

Harry looked a little uncomfortable and Madame Pomfrey offered him the pain relief potion that was in her uniform apron but he refused it like he had the calming potion. As long as the boy wasn't in any real pain they wouldn't force the issue, it might make his magic, which during the procedure and for some time after would be unstable enough to lash out at them. Forcing the boy to do something against his will might make this unstable magic see them as an aggressor that was putting Harry at risk, this was not something that they could afford to happen. Especially due to how magically powerful he was.

The spells that they were now encountering were rarer and harder to remove as they needed specific counters in order to dissolve them, they were also the more tightly woven of the entire series of spells. So tightly woven in fact that they looked like one spell, the colours blurring into one another. This meant that they needed to be picked apart delicately in order to stop them from collapsing inwards potentially harming Harry. Poppy had begun to sweat her wand hand shaking slightly; she wasn't as young as she had once been and out of the three of them she was suffering the most. The older that a person got, the larger their magical core expanded to be, but it refilled itself much, much slower than a younger person's did. She wiped a heavily wrinkled hand across her brow, her sleeve soaking up the sweat. A short breather would probably be needed by then all before the final and hardest piece of magic was to be performed. She would have used a handkerchief but the one that usually used, had been left somewhere during the general kerfuffle the day had brought with it and she didn't have the luxury of time in which to retrieve it.

Iain was pale and drawn; no doubt the emotions flying round the room were affecting him badly. The muscle over his left eye was twitching involuntarily. 'Benign Fasculation!' Poppy thought to herself as she looked at the boy, glad to have remembered the term. It wasn't uncommon for people in times of great stress to develop a Benign Fasculation (a twitch) in a small muscle. A twitch like this was benign because it wouldn't develop into a serious muscular disease or condition.

Once though this thick layer and greatly surprised by the lack of booby traps there were (Albus had obviously never thought that he would be caught, or that he had done a much better job on the glamour ) they were able to take a seat for a while. Taking the weight off was one of the best ideas that the matron thought that she had ever had. Iain was carding his hands through the teenagers sweat soaked back hair, calming him as his magic hummed around them. As they sat there, everyone could feel the raw power that Harry was capable of floating around them for a few minutes as they caught their breath. The vast majorit of it was now no longer trapped up in retaining the strusture of all those different spells and was free to move around. As his body had never held the full might of his power it was struggling to absorb it. The small pile of books of the bedside cabinet levitated three feet into the air and hung there, the sheets of the bed changing colour at an eye watering speed. He was trying to use some of it up so that it could better fit inside of him. Eventually the boy began to summon the power towards him, pushing it inward and the various acts of accidental magic ended.

To begin with no-one noticed the slow changes that were starting to take place as Harry subconsciously began to break down the glamour himself.

The pictures that had been taken at the start of the medical procedure, showed a teenage boy, a little underweight for his age and a little pale surrounded by brightly coloured spell lights. That had been hard enough for them to deal with as it was, but what actually lay beneath the glamour was the face of someone dangerously even it could be said scarily underweight. His cheekbones stood out starkly from his face, the skin stretched tightly over it and blood vessels easily seen. The hair that had seemed so bouncy and full of life lay listless, dry and almost brittle looking. Madame Pomfrey sobbed and was led to a chair (having stood up and come over to the bed once they had noticed what was going on)that Kingsley had conjured for her. The boy's magic was running out of power quickly as it fought to pull down the glamour, and Iain was quick to help the boy, by placing a small highly polished quartz stone on the bare chest of the teenager. It was a stone which was well known for its ability to amplify and transmit power and was his last ditch attempt to end this. Iain placed his wand gently against it pushing a continuous stream of magic through it. They needed to finish this today.

The skin beneath the glamour coloured a little more than it had before. All over Harry sometimes little, but mostly large changes were occurring. By now sweat was pouring off the small Gryffindor and his eyes had closed in agony. Despite repeated attempts by both Poppy and himself Harry would not take the medication that would remove some if not all of the pain. At one point they had tried to force it, but the natural magic, taking part in the procedure had created was desperate to remove all threats to him and they had had to back off in fear of its wroth. As a healer it was hard to watch someone in that much pain and not be able to do anything about it.

"I can't do this anymore." Poppy moaned from her seat as millimeter by millimeter Harry's actual appearance was revealed to them all. Each vertebra of his spine stood out clearly. They were all shocked no one had been expecting the poor thing to look quite like this. Especially this far into the school year a school year when he had, had access to a large amount of food. There was no way the old man was getting away with endangering the boys life. It was likely that if this violation of magic hadnt been removed, they would have been dealing with a dead Harry Potter before long.

There would have to be a lot of tests carried out, to work out how ill the boy actually was. Being so underweight there were many different illnesses and conditions that he was at risk of. Low blood pressure, muscle atrophy, dehydration and brain damage were just the start of it.

* * *

><p><span>Thursday night<span>

In his life Severus had played many roles, in some circles he was seen as an actor extraordinaire, having both sides believe that he was working for them, whilst sowing seeds of doubt within their heads. Both Voldermort and Dumbledore had believed that he was working for them solely, but there had been a little niggling doubt as to the strength of his allegiance. That had meant that he had been involved in the inner circles of both men and had been party to a lot of their plans though sadly not all of them... Despite the problems this lack of information had often called, it also meant that he hadn't been involved in some of their most evil acts and that was fine with him. With Voldermort finally gone there was only one more evil overlord left to over throw.

The work that Severus was currently doing was vital if they wanted Harry to be able to live as ordinary a life as the boy was ever going to have. One of the duties of the school was to inform the relevant creature council when a child went through a creature inheritance. Over the years they hadn't had to do this very often as usually the child's parents were more than willing to do it themselves before parading them around in society. Those they had to inform on were generally muggleborns or those children who had the unfortunate position of being from Pureblood extremist families. In most cases a family was proud that they had produced a child with creature blood these days.

Usually the process was very simple and quick to do, despite the ever increasing laws restricting the actions, rights and movements of various groups of creatures made by the last government, many of the ancient councils had still been meeting openly. It had been a way of showing that they weren't less than human and that even the werewolves were in fact civilized. As more and more exotic creature inheritances were occurring within the school the older councils would take someone who was not necessarily part of their group under their wing. The Veela had a specialized incubus and succubus department and the werewolf council of elders was supplying support to any were creature, even felines who the notoriously didn't get on with.

Harry as usual had to be one of the most awkward people in the world. His inheritance couldn't be something common and easy to sort around. No he had to belong to a group of people that were known as the most elusive and wary of wizarding kind. Severus knew that this task he had given himself (he didn't trust anyone else to do it) would be difficult and probably highly stressful, but at least now he was making some headway. After several false leads that had taken him up and down the country on a wild goose chase He now stood on a lonely stretch of beach, buffeted by the wind. The tiny Island of Eriskay, south of the island of Uist in the Outer Hebrides was the end of a trail that he had followed. Howling the wind whipped his hair around his face obstructing the view. No doubt this would be a place that would be beautiful in summer but winter was now quickly approaching and the promise of snow lingered in the air.

Harry was someone that the now, for a time at least, former headmaster had deemed an important piece in his chess set. Severus knew that he was highly unlikely to have let him go so easily as it the last few weeks had seemed. If the Dursleys were as bad as many of the staff had feared them to be it would be highly inappropriate for him to be sent back there. If Albus' trial went the way that they hoped he could need a new magical guardian.

"Hell he'll need a new magical guardian either way!" Snape cursed shuffling his left foot in the dry sand. There were many things that the old man had a power over if he was named as magical guardian to Harry, no matter where he was, even in the deepest darkest cell in Azkaban.

It was dark, the sun having fully set just a few moments ago, and apart from the gentle lapping of the sea as the tide turned drawing further and further away from the shore there was no noise. To say that it was eerie would be an understatement. He should be back at the school by now, but there was something that was telling him that this was the place to be tonight. All around him, the somewhat dour potions master could feel magic. It was the natural magic of unspoiled places. Time slowly ticked by unnoticed by any of the muggles here, all tucked up in their beds waiting the morning without any indication that they lived in such a magically charged place. Severus rubbed his hands together, the warming charm on his gloves doing little to actually keep them warm out here in the below freezing temperatures.

Suddenly the sharp snapping noise of a twig being stood on echoed out through the night. His head snapped to the left, the direction in which the noise ad come from, years of being a double agent honing his sense of hearing. Squinting slightly he could see the dark shape of a person making their way out of a cluster of trees in the mid distance, they were carrying a small blue lantern and they were making their way towards him.


	22. Chapter 22

A/n: Wow, i totally forgot about posting this guy's. Forgive me! :(

Chapter 22

Harry had passed out shortly after the glamour had finally been removed from his body, leaving it in its natural appearance. Regardless of the extra magic that Iain had been pushing through him and the magic heightening effects of all the stones they had used, the boy was nearing magical exhaustion. All four of them were horrified by the state that Harry was in. Sure Madame Pomfrey had suspected that there was something very serious going on but nothing was more shocking than being proved right. Gareth was shaking his head, at the very least Dumbledore was going to go down for child endangerment, with all the tracking spells placed upon him there was no way that the old man didn't know the state that the teenager had been in. He also adding the refusal of appropriate medical services to the growing list of crimes the old man had achieved, it was obvious that Harry had been like this for some time and that the glamour that had been placed upon him had prevented him from receiving the treatment he so desperately needed.

Iain was currently checking the state of Harry's vital organs ensuring that he didn't have to be taken to St Mungos for emergency healing. His kidneys had reduced function, due to the fact that he hadn't been drinking properly. That would be relatively simple to solve, luckily his brain didn't seem to be affected by his dehydration. With the help of Madame Pomfrey he had been able to hook Harry up to a saline drip that would give his body the vital fluids that it needed in order to return his renal function to normal levels. There had been some slight muscle atrophying but luckily his heart and diaphragm had been unaffected. At least they wouldn't have to worry about the boy suddenly crashing, they had time to work in.

Poppy rescanned Harry, the results copying themselves to both Harry's medical file and the file held by the Aurors department. Every single one of the results was vastly different from those that the Matron had taken only the other day. The scariest being the boys weight which was over two stone (28 pounds +) underweight and how low his blood pressure was. The later would go up as his body received the fluids they were giving him but the weight issue would take a long time to heal. In every mineral and vitamin Harry was showing a significant deficiency. She would have to ask Severus to brew a nutrition potion for him, none of the ones that she stocked would be sufficient for him. Not even St Mungo's had a potion that he could take, what with his allergy to both aniseed and bay leaves.

The emotions in the room were beginning to get the better of Iain as they built even higher than they had been during the healing process. At least during that they had all been focused on something and were therefore better able to control them. The results of the in depth scan the Aurors had okayed rocked them all to the core. Over his thus far the young man lying on the bed before them had been through so many different things it was a wonder that he was still with them. It was clear to see that Harry had a fighting spirit.

A scan like this was able to list all the illnesses and conditions that a person had, had during the course of their life and the treatments that they had received in order to treat them. Up until that fateful Halloween Harry's medical history contained the various illnesses a small child was prone to getting, such as coughs and colds. After this time Harry seemed to suffer with a variety of different illnesses, many of which had never been treated in any way and had eventually cleared up on their own. In the early November of nineteen eighty one Harry had, had Pneumonia, a serious illness and one that should have worried the Dursleys into seeking medical help for their nephew. Any normal family would have at the very least taken him to see their local GP (general practitioner) others might even have rushed him to the hospital but they had done nothing. Things then snowballed, there were many long periods of illness that could have been easily cured. From the ages of eighteen months and three Harry had had a very low Vitamin D level, which had only slightly improved between the ages of three and ten. That in of itself was worrying; a Vitamin D deficiency was most commonly caused by someone not getting enough sunlight.

Broken ribs a broken arm, several bouts of hypothermia and on one occasion a dog bite, teamed with periods of what could only be described as starvation were not helping either Dumbledore's or the Dursley's case. The sheer lack of food had meant that as a child he had taken much longer to heal than he should have, this sometimes leading to secondary infections occurring.

Upon receiving the results Poppy had burst into tears, Iain, struggling to control his empathic skills followed soon after as her emotion smothered him.

"Well that is going to be damning information, for the Wizengamot." Anthony whispered as he retrieved the magical camera from an inner pocket spelled with an extension charm. The pictures would be highly distressing to those that would have to pass judgment on the man, but they needed to be taken as proof.

* * *

><p>It was some time before Harry came round after having passed out. The events of the day were somewhat blurred he could only really recall things in little pieces. Everywhere from his neck to his toes was aching. He tried to roll onto his left side, only the slight stinging pain in the inner elbow of his right hand halted his movement. Bleary eyed, he groped for his glasses, after a few moments they were pressed into his hand by someone wearing lime green robes. Hurriedly he put them on, nearly poking himself in the eye with one of the arms and balked at the thin needle that was imbedded in the vein of his arm. Attached to it was a long narrow plastic tube, on the end of which was a bag full of clear liquid. Needles were something that he had thought that he had left behind, after entering the wizarding world. He shuddered the last time that he had had a needle put into him, it had been by a trainee doctor at the local hospital and it hadn't gone well. It had taken ages and several attempts in order to get it in and Harry had been covered in her previous unsuccessful attempts.<p>

The person by his bed shifted, knocking him out of his thoughts, as he turned to take them in. A tired looking Healer Powell was checking the drip casually, obviously wanting to talk to him but trying to make the situation casual. Harry coughed, letting the man know that he was still awake. The light around him was brighter than it had been before meaning that at the very least he hadn't been out for too long. That was somewhat of a small blessing at least.

"Harry, I'm sure that you know that we removed the glamour from you this morning." Iain prodded gently, trying to get something across to him, what it was, Harry had no idea. "There is a large difference in the way that you appear now and the way that you did this morning...It might be very shocking for you." The last was said with a heavy tone of warning and that sent Harry straight into panic mode. What was wrong with him? What had Dumbledore been covering up? Strong white teeth bit down heavily onto his bottom lip and he began chomping on it. The slight pain helping him to keep control of his breathing regardless of the fact that his chest was becoming tighter and tighter. He didn't want to be given another one of those calming draught things and he knew they would force him to take one if he reacted in the way he wanted to. He brought his hands up to his chest, cradling them together, nipping the palm of one hand with the ragged nails of his thumb and forefinger. This too was helping, though the way that the healer was looking at him was scary.

"What...What's different?" Harry asked wincing at the way in which his voice squeaked at the beginning of his question showing the man just how scared that he was.

"You haven't been eating properly for a very long time Harry and that means that your body is having trouble keeping itself going. Due to this you're very underweight and it shows." Iain explained, a worried look crossing his young face. He didn't know what it was about this man, but something made Harry trust him. Maybe it was the fact that he wasn't much older than Harry himself was. Anyway he seemed friendly enough and dedicated to his cause, which at the moment was making Harry better.

Harry knew, even from being very little that the Dursleys never gave him the proper amounts of food. No one else at school got locked in a cupboard at night or whenever their relatives got bored of seeing them without food for sometimes days on end. Dudley always got more food than Harry did, his parents often making him eat it in front of his cousin. When in a particularly foul mood he had known his Aunt Petunia to make him eat things that had gone off or were out of date so that she didn't have to 'waste food on the freak'. Not eating had come with him from the muggle world into the magical one. By the time he was eleven he had accepted it as the way in which his life was.

In his first year, he had been shocked at the amount of food that had appeared on the table in front of him at every meal. The only place that he had seen so much food before had been at the supermarket his Aunt did her weekly shopping at. She had only taken him so that she could show him all the food that was only for Dudley, tempt him with things that he could never have. All around him people were shoveling food away, often without seeing what they were eating. He only recognized a few things, choosing a little bit of each and trying them all. It hadn't taken long before he had felt stuffed fit to burst. Harry's jaw had almost hit the floor when the dessert course appeared on the tables. Dessert after all had been a foreign concept to him back then.

Ron hadn't noticed Harry's battle with the food on his plate, but Neville had, advising him to take a little of the Swiss roll in front of them and coaching him through each bite. From that point on really, they had become friends, Neville always there at every meal helping Harry to add a little more to his plate. Saying nothing when he had to start from the beginning once again every year. That was friendship that you couldn't buy. Recently Harry had began to feel strangely about his friend, little butterflies squirming in his stomach but he had no idea what that might mean. He should probably ask Dean about it when he was finally released from here.

"I want to know Harry..." The man began to ask before breaking off to stare at his clasped hands. "Are you scared of eating?" Harry shook his head vigorously, black hair flopping listlessly from side to side. What kind of question was that? Why would he be scared of food? Sure he hadn't been eating much lately but the nausea that he had been feeling because of the immanent inheritance had made it almost impossible to get anything in and even harder to keep it down. It had severely hampered his and Neville's routine for building the meals up once again.

"What can you tell me about your aunt and uncle?" Asked the Healer, his voice becoming graver, apprehension filling his tone, like he already knew what he would hear and wouldn't like it.

"I don't want to talk about them." Harry shouted, drawing the covers up over his head, despite the stinging in his elbow as he jostled the needle. They knew his best kept most guarded secret. The panic attack that he had been able to stave off until now had surged up inside of him breaking what little control over it that he had. His chest tightened painfully, causing him to take quick short breaths, soon making the space under the duvet cover hot and even harder to breath due to the stuffiness. Harry could feel himself physically shaking from head to foot, heart beating loud and fast in his ears like a drum. They knew that he was a freak and now they would kick him out. He bit his hand to stop himself from crying. Crying was for girls and he was a boy, a pathetic excuse for a boy (as his aunt had often told him) but a boy none the less.

Someone was trying to pull back the covers, but he held tight onto them, in this small space he was safe and no one could get to him. Absentmindedly he began rocking back and forth. He couldn't go back to the Dursleys they hated him even though he wanted so much, tried so much, to make them love him over the years nothing worked. Not the mother's day card he had made his Aunt in nursery or the Father's day card that he had made his Uncle. When he completed all his chores they just made the list longer and if he didn't, he knew that he wasn't going to get fed that day. Harry had tried so, so very hard to make them love him but his freakishness had put a barrier between them that couldn't be dismantled.

"Harry come out from under there please, we don't have to talk about them if you don't want to. I know that you're very confused and frightened." Iain beseeched from the other side of the duvet, wheeling the stand that the drip was on closer to the bed so that Harry wouldn't rip out the needle. What he said shocked Harry for a moment he let go of the covers, only to find them missing a moment later.

Iain was smiling at him and that smile of understanding and the fact that he had sat on the edge of the bed coaching him throughout the attack, broke through Harry's strong outer walls, a single tear making its way down his cheek. His face was beetroot red due to the heat under the duvet, that first tear that escaped was soon followed by a deluge of tears as he began to sob properly.

He hadn't cried in years.


	23. Chapter 23

A/n: This story has recieved in total over 30,000 views!

Chapter 23

Thursday night

Despite the blueish glow of the lamplight, it was hard to make out the figure as it closed the distance between them. Severus' hand gripped his wand tightly, the well known feel of it reducing his anxiety tremendously. His magic was still telling him that the situation was okay so he did nothing. After years as a double agent, who at any time could have been found out, he had learned to trust these feelings completely. Frozen to the core from standing out in what was now turning into a howling gale driving small snowflakes in front of it, the potions master snorted, it would be just his luck to be frozen to death trying to help a Potter. Luckily the snow wasn't lying, just being blown along the ground rather like the sand upon the tops of the dunes in a desert.

Not fifty feet away from him, the individual stopped looking back towards the small yet dense copse of trees, obviously waiting on the orders of someone who was waiting back there. The under canopy was so dense and the light so weak that he couldn't make out the shapeless blob of a shadow standing not two meters into the copse. Turning ones back on an unknown entity was not something that was particularly sensible. The wind caught the hood of the dark cloak (it was impossible to make out the color properly in the dim light), causing the woman, as he could now see she was to turn sharply back towards him. Her eyes almost glowing in the night, an eerie sight to behold. If he hadn't been so very cold Severus might have been able to string some words together to ask her who she was and why in this place of all places she had planned to meet him. As he could feel no sense of danger from her presence he only started as she moved to rest her hand on his shoulder. He hadn't realized that she was so close to him.

Before he could even think of a spell to cast the awful feeling of side long apparition settled itself in his stomach almost making him lose his dinner all over her. He never would be able to get used to it, and was glad that he had passed his apparition test the first time round. Doing on one's own was a completely different experience than being brought along by someone, for starters you know for sure where you were going and you weren't being dragged behind someone else. Snape realized with very uncharacteristic blush that he had been clinging on to her for dear life, hands clutching tightly to her cloak.

"I'm sorry for any discomfort my impropriety has caused you." He embarrassedly stated, adding a somewhat stiff bow, not quite reaching the expected height for such a meeting. It would not do to insult or annoy someone who could be his last hope in making contact with the Faerie. Even if he felt as though the entirety of his body had turned into an ice cube. She laughed heartedly pushing him backwards as if to get better look at him. It was only then that Severus realized that he was shaking uncontrollably from head to foot. Tutting at him in a rather Molly Weasley like fashion the woman pulled a soft green knitted blanket off a nearby wooden chair before forcing him into it and wrapping the blanket around him, ignoring his protests. This situation was getting weirder and weirder every second.

"There is no need to be so formal with me dear. My name is Winifred." The now named mystery lady said to him as a loud popping noise indicated the arrival of another, probably the person she had been looking for earlier. Winifred was now removing her cloak (it was dark brown), hanging it on a tiny wooden peg attached to the wall. Her clothes had a certain roughness to them that showed that they hadn't been created using magic, but by hand. It wasn't that they were badly made, nor that they were unattractive, merely the fact that every seam wasn't completely perfect and the embroidery was more complicated that it was possible to make using magic. From an adjoining room, a very tall and broad man walked out, pulling wet dean leaves from his dirty blonde hair.

From the furniture that surrounded them Severus deduced that they were in a sitting room. If he hadn't been outside for so long the temperature would have been pleasant and comfortable, but the sudden change in the temperature had made him feel just how cold he was. They must be using a temperature charm or a heating ward in order to enable the two of them to stay here, despite the frigid weather. If, as he suspected, the two of them where Faeries, Severus was puzzled how they had been able to come to the meeting place that they had created without entering the coma like state the school's book had talked about. They unlike him seemed to be completely unaffected by the weather.

"So this is Severus Snape then. I had wondered when he was finally going to get here." The man had an impossibly deep voice, even deeper than that of Kingsley and it was soothing. Severus couldn't manage to conjure up the energy to question them as to how they knew his name and still shivering he found himself falling asleep.

* * *

><p>"Did you have to scare him?" Winifred asked lifting the thin man into her arms. He was surprisingly light and it didn't surprise her that he had developed hypothermia out there on the beach. Without using any of her healing magic it was clear that the man's body temperature was dangerously low and that without help he would be at a great risk. Severus seemed to be a man who took little care of himself. The type who would literally drive themselves into the ground and would have to be practically unconscious before someone could help him. If they were ever to find out the truth of the situation they needed him to survive the night, something that wouldn't happen if they didn't get him warmed up as quickly as possible. He had flinched as she put her arms around him no doubt reacting to the heating charm that surrounded her, touching his chilled flesh. It was frustrating that such a thing could only be created on clothing and not on people themselves. For one it would save a lot of hassle for the entire community in winter and it would also help them dearly now.<p>

Once through to the guest bedroom she laid him out on the bed, still in his clothes, removing his boots and thick woolen scarf before heaping blanket after blanket on top of him. Alberich had opened the airing cupboard and was passing her additional blankets; even he knew that they had to warm their visitor up as carefully as possible. Heating him up too quickly could result in them accidentally burning him or cause the cold blood in the outer layers of tissue to move to the heart or brain too quickly. It was vital that this man remain alive.

The Faerie community had been made aware of the fact that someone had been looking for them, asking creatures that they were known to communicate with in the past, about how to get in touch with them. The current queen Nirenia had called for a meeting of the grand high council. Such as thing was almost unheard of, only being called in times of great threat towards their people. A wizard looking for them was considered to be a huge threat to the safety of all faeries within Britain. It had been centuries since the last creature hunt, when wizards had tried exterminate all creatures thinking them savage and uncivilized due to their different cultural norms. An example of this being, that many wizards thought them to be less than human due to their inability to birth live young. During that time, the Fae who had always been reclusive had shut themselves off from the wizarding world altogether in order to remain alive. They had been harsh times for everyone. Building what was essentially a small country and ensuring that i could be and would continue to be a self sustainable community was a harsh reality to the new freedoms that they had enjoyed. Other creatures had followed their example but after the fall of Grindelwald in nineteen forty five many of the ancient councils had deemed it safe enough to once again participate in the wizarding world, regardless of the heavy sanctions against them. After the fall of Voldermort and the removal of the bigoted minister of magic, even more had begun to make themselves known to wizards once again.

Despite the fact that they had become a secluded race, it wasn't as if they hadn't kept up with what either creatures were up to. Ignorance could after all be something that could lead to their destruction. Extinction was not something that anyone wanted to happen. Nor indeed was falling ot with old friends and ancient allies.

Faerie were a naturally suspicious people, after all this trait had saved many of their ancestors' lives in the past. So, at the mention of an unknown going in search of them, the council had been gathered in order to decide what they would have to do to protect themselves. Originally there had been many voices calling for the wizard to be killed but they had been over ridden by the Queen herself. She had had to remind them that they were not a war like race and that she would not sanction such a response without sufficient evidence that he was a great threat to them. In the end it was decided that they would send some well trained scouts out to assess the situation and make a choice after this information had been received. It was impossible to make an appropriate decision without knowing fully what it was that you were dealing with.

It had been a huge shock to everyone when the two skilled dominants returned, swearing that the man had smelled of an unmated submissive that had just been through his inheritance. Unmated Fae gave off pheromones in order to attract a mate to them. That had caused several raised eyebrows, the man in question being too old to be the submissive in question. In their next meeting, after much shouting and debate it was decided that a trail would be left for this wizard to follow. Leading him to somewhere far away from where they were currently residing, where he would be met by Winifred and her mate. Tis would therefore mean that they were not putting the colony at risk, if he turned out to have sinister machinations. Both were well known in the community and also well respected due to their high ranks in the Queens personal guard.

"Why you wouldn't let me go to him to moment the poor thing arrived I don't know?" Winifred sighed, gently brushing loose pieces of hair away from Severus' face. For some reason or another, she felt the need to mother him.

"The tracking charm Stephan put on him was playing up. You know that dear." Alberich grunted, closing the stiff door to the airing cupboard and taking a seat next to his mate on the bed. The way she was looking at the wizard lying there in the spare bed, skin deathly pale made his heart ache. The two of them had been alone for some time now, their children having literally flown the nest a long time ago, most now with children of thier own. If he listened carefully enough, every now and then he could hear the laughter of his hatchlings as they played. He shook his head, pulling his wife into his lap suddenly causing her to emit a small shriek of surprise. Tonight was going to be a long night and a long battle to bring the other back to health. Hypothermia was not pleasant.


	24. Chapter 24

Chapter 24

Friday morning

Luna was stood outside of the Gryffindor dorms waiting for her friends, brimming with excitement at the news she had to tell them. In order to catch them, the young Ravenclaw had had to get dressed very quickly after her meeting with professor Flitwick. Her tie was a bit cockeyed and she was wearing odd socks again (one navy blue the other black) it was so hard to tell the difference between them after all. The skin around her blue eyes was slightly red, from the crying that he had done earlier, not all of it staged. Her conscious twinged a little at the way in which she had used the man. Though Luna also felt a sense of rightness about it, there was no way that she should be expected to put up with the way that they had been treated, Harry was their friend and they hadn't been able to see him, merely brushes off. The petite blonde girl shuddered; no one else had ever spent so much time in the infirmary for a creature inheritance before.

The portrait of the fat lady was refusing to open for her even though Neville had given her the new password only the day before. Apparently the headmaster didn't want students from different houses able to get into each other's dorms something that he had suddenly decided this morning or last night it seemed.. Luna didn't like to say bad things about people but the man was insufferable at the best of times, this was just a new low. Before, all of them had alternated where they spent their time together, making sure that Ron and Hermione as well as other tormenters wouldn't find out where they met and at what time in order to ambush them. I t also meant that Harry crazy fans and those who had decided to hate him last year because they didn't want to believe that Voldermort was back couldn't find them. Both Ravenclaw and Gryffindor towers had been places that they spent large amounts of time as they were usually pretty empty during the day. The twins influence was very useful in keeping their brother and his girlfriend at bay. At the end of the day Ronald was a coward who knew well enough what Fred and George were capable of doing when provoked.

After standing there for a decent amount of time, someone left the common room and she was able to sneak in through the slowly closing portrait, despite the Fat Lady's cries for Luna to get out. Score: one for Luna nil for the headmaster. The common room was deserted, what with it being so early in the morning hardly anyone was actually awake yet never mind out of bed and fully dressed. She swiftly made her way across the room to the narrow stone staircase, which led up to the boy's dorm rooms. Her friends she knew were all in the sixth year's room, the second highest in the tower after the seventh years room. Luna wrinkled her nose slightly at the smell wafting from the rooms she passed. Boys, especially teenage boys were known for being incredibly messy and lax in hygiene and such a stereotype was not disproved here. Though, she pondered it was better than the smell of the artificial odours of the perfumes, hairsprays and other beauty products the girls in her dorm insisted on using every day. It was a wonder that they were able to breathe.

Once she had reached the right door, she knocked loudly on it, it wouldn't do for her to barge in on them so early in the morning and for all she knew they might be getting changed. That was a sight she definitely didn't want to see. Despite the love Luna felt for all her friends, she didn't want to be scarred for life.

* * *

><p>"Why did Ron say that Harry was a Faerie? " Neville asked, only now remembering what the red head had shouted the other day. At this everyone turned to face him, with looks of slowly dawning understanding, before a loud knock sounded at the door. They were all puzzled, none of the boys within the tower would have bothered knocking and many of the girls would have just barged their way in as well. There was also this fact that Gryffindors were notoriously late risers. "<p>

Seamus hurried to open the door in case the person on the other side began knocking again and woke Ron up. This conversation was vital and they didn't need him listening in on them. There was no telling who would know by the end of the day if he did. As Seamus opened the door he was treated to a view of a day dreaming Luna knocking on his face instead of it.

"Oww!" He shouted holding his nose tightly with his left hand, eyes tightly shut in an effort to make the pain go away faster and prevent himself from swearing. He'd been brought up never to swear around a lady. His shout startled Luna out of whatever trance she had been in and she was soon apologizing profusely.

"Let's take this conversation down to the common room."Fred said, standing up again, slinging his bag over his shoulder, before pulling his twin from the bed and returning the Marauders Map to its rightful place in Harry's trunk. "It's not very private in here." At this he glared at the still snoring lump that was his youngest brother.

They made their way down to the common room as quietly as they could, making sure to close the door after them to prevent Ron from listening in. Once and sat in their favourite seats, right by the fire, talk began once more.

"Professor Flitwick said that he'll get us all in to see Harry this afternoon." Luna informed them, playing with the cuff of her robe, rolling it back and forth between her fingers.

"Great acting Luna." Seamus congratulated her, beaming from underneath his shaggy ginger brown hair.

"It wasn't really acting. I am really worried about him." Her voice cracked a little towards the end and it drew the boy's attention to her eyes which were still red and puffy despite her washing her face before making her way over. Dean frowned drawing her into a cuddle.

"Nev, what was that you said earlier about Ron shouting that Harry was a Faerie?" George asked, changing the subject slightly drawing them away from thinking about how wrong it was to be sitting here without Harry. Neville rubbed a hand over his face, feeling the stubble that he hadn't had the chance to shave off yet today.

"Yeah, remember when we walked in on him and Hermione and he was ranting?" They nodded it was an incident that they would never forget. After all Dean, quiet, peaceful loving Dean had punched Ron in the face. "He shouted and I quote 'Fucking Faerie bastard' just before Dean broke his nose." Dean looked a little sheepish.

"I thought he was just being offensive you know, calling Harry a fairy and stuff." He blushed; violence was something that he stayed far away from. It was just that all the tension that he had been feeling and had bottled up over the past few months had suddenly sprung up at the same time, not giving him the chance to deal with it properly.

"No I remember now."Luna added, smiling as she tapped her feet against the floor, having taken her shoes off as soon as they sat down. "He pronounced it differently, faerie not fairy." She snuggled into Dean's embrace; he was comfy and so warm. No wonder Seamus loved him so.

"I guess we'll finally be finding out what's going on this afternoon like." Seamus yawned cuddling into Dean on his other side.


	25. Chapter 25

Chapter 25

The night had been a hard one for the two faeries that had been tasked with finding out the intentions of the wizard who was trying to find a way to get in contact with the faerie nation. Severus had developed a serious case of hypothermia following the trail that they had left for him to follow. If the tracking charm hadn't gone on the blink they might have made it to him before it had reached a level that had become severely dangerous to his health. An Outer Hebridean autumn was not something to be sniffed at, especially with the gale force wind, which was currently making the panes of the windows rattle, even behind the shutters. In this part of the world it was certainly going to be a cold winter, possibly the coldest in years.

The two of them had stayed by the man's bedside, ensuring that he was warming up properly throughout the night. Winifred had begun doing ten minute diagnostic charms as soon as he had been wrapped up sufficiently in the blankets and had continued until the early hours of the morning when he had started to sweat. At that point they knew that it was safe to begin taking off the blankets one at a time, until he was comfortable. Aldrich removed the man's shoes and placed them neatly at the foot of the bed before tucking his feet back under the covers. Winifred was a woman who had just lost her youngest child, well lost wasn't the real term she should be using, but it felt like a part o her had died when Rosaline had finally moved from the parental nest. As such for now at least she was desperate to fill the void with something, her instincts were telling her that this young man (and he was young) needed her and by the Goddess she would be there. The wind was changing, what it brought with it was any ones guess. Though those same instincts also told her whatever those were they were positive.

Between the two of them, they peeled his coat off, being careful not to wake him in the process. Severus would need all the sleep that he could get if he were to heal faster. Underneath that he wore a set of extremely elegant but uncomfortable looking teaching robes, not having anything in his side and feeling a little broody, Winifred looked through the clothes that her children had left here and found a pair of pyjamas that her eldest had once treasured. Aldrich had dissolved into giggles at the sight of them, resized and gracing the body of the grumpy and overly forma potions master. His reputation had preceded him.

Despite knowing that Severus wouldn't be happy when he woke up, her husband didn't say anything about the situation, after all he didn't want to get bitten.

"Duck pyjamas!" He whispered to himself incredulously as he folded the man's clothing placing it carefully on the top of the dresser for him to wear in the morning. .

There seemed to be no lasting damage that she could ascertain from the results of her scans, but it was likely that he would have some concentration problems today at least due to the fact that his brain had been much cooler than it should have been.

The small cottage was a holiday home that they had used much more frequently when the children were little. The Outer Hebrides were a very beautiful and remote place that on many of the islands were sparsely inhabited. A perfect place for a little flying in their true forms once they had reached majority. Due to it not being used very often now, they only kept the bare essentials here things that wouldn't go off in the time between visits; otherwise they might have had a pepper up potion to give him.

Winifred hauled herself up from the bed as the sun began to rise, heading off to the tiny little country kitchen off the living room to prepare them all something to eat. Something warm would do all three of them the world of good. It would also help her to keep her mind off what was going on. The situation was racked with enough worry as it was without her letting herself get wound up about it. All good things come to those who wait after all.

"Porridge it is then." She mumbled, opening the small bag the pair had brought with them from home, filled with food and two or three changes of clothing. They had been in a rush and Winifred prided herself on the fact that she had remembered to bring the bag with the cooling and stasis charms on it otherwise they might have nothing to eat. The corner or her top lip quirked, if they hadn't, she would have needed only to leave it outside. In fact the weather was probably colder than the charm in place to prevent the food from spoiling.

Aldrich sat on the comfy guest bed, rubbing his eyes in an effort to keep awake. Today it was vital that they find the truth. He could smell the scent of an unmated submissive all over the man, though it seemed to be fading. Obviously the man himself was not the submissive in question. It had been an unlikely thought, but many strange things seemed to be happening lately. Now that he had the chance to think about the situation properly, the man might be a father whose child had gone through a Faerie inheritance. There were plenty of Pureblood families out there that had a little bit of Fae in them no matter how 'pure' they claimed their blood to be. If it was so, an inheritance in this way hadn't happened for so long he couldn't even think of an example to compare it against. Out there somewhere was an unmated submissive who would need the support and guidance of his people in order to get through this. It was common knowledge that the wizards didn't have many books about his people and the ones that they had possessed, had mostly been destroyed during the creature hunts of the past thousand years.

On the bed, Severus began to stir, blankets twisting round him and black hair ruffling, to create bed hair of an epic state. The hair which was usually greasy due to the extensive amount of brewing that he participated in now resembled somewhat a bird's nest that had been involved with a hurricane. In short it was even worse than _James Potter's_ after a Quidditch match. He groaned wherever he was, he was mafting. Rolling onto his side, he opened his eyes and was greeted by a colour that worried him. The walls of his own bedroom where a calm and stately gray, not as dark as one might think that helped him get to sleep and the walls of the school infirmary were a stark and sterile white. This was neither. He could only describe it as the most offensive shade of yellow he had ever had the misfortune of seeing in his life. Who painted bedrooms sunshine yellow, apart from Helga Hufflepuff?

For a moment he luxuriated in the comfort that the warmth of the blankets provided, he was absolutely not snuggling at all...

A bedroom was supposed to be a place of serenity and peace not a violent explosion of colour that fried you optic nerve as soon as you woke up. How anyone was supposed to sleep here was beyond him. A small cough and creak of bedsprings had him sitting bolt upright and searching for his wand. But the man sat on the end of his bed merely chuckled, before handing it to him from where it had been placed on the bedside table. He grabbed it out of the large outstretched hand feeling somewhat safe once again. The past couple of weeks had been an emotional rollercoaster and this 'kidnapping' was pulling him towards the end of his rope. Being nice to people was so exhausting.

"Severus, I have heard word that you have been searching for a way to get in touch with the Faerie's." His deep voice rumbled around the small room, echoing off its brightly coloured walls. Despite his years as a spy, the potions master was finding it hard to gather together any kind of response. Normally he would have been on his feet, with his wand at the neck of the strange by now, but nothing about his life seemed to be very normal at the moment. He had followed a trail into what could possibly be a trap, not left any word with his colleagues and now he was stranded here with two completely unknown people. People who apparently knew his name and some of the details of the mission that he was on. How he had survived this long in the civil war that had happened, he had no idea, if his skills had degraded to this level. "Why?" Of all the questions that he had expected this was not one of them.

"I'm a teacher at Hogwarts School and one of our students has been through an early creature inheritance that has resulted in him becoming a submissive faerie. I want to ensure that he has the right level of support." Severus explained, running his fingers gently through his hair to remove the snarls and tangles he had created during the night with his tossing and turning. Growling when his fingers met a specifically large tangle, he stopped to think how ridiculous he looked, tucked up in bed like a small child.

The door to the room opened and the woman from the night before came through, carrying a heavy wooden tray filled with breakfast for the three of them. Her auburn hair caught the faint light from the rising sun, making it glow. It was yet another reminder of the one who he had lost. No matter how hard he tried to push away her memory, it haunted him and there were times when he wondered whether she was haunting him, her ghost unable to rest until her son was safe. Such grim thoughts were not healthy so early in the morning. Winifred laid the tray on the bed, taking off a bowl of porridge and giving it to the man whose name he was yet to learn. Severus winced, the smell of smoked fish battering his sensitive nose. As the bowl passed by him, he was able to see the smoked kipper that lay on top of the mound of salted porridge.

Luckily such a breakfast had not been created for him, his bowl consisting of one of the other traditional ways of serving porridge. A mound of salted porridge made with water, which sat like a castle in the middle of a moat of milk. In the olden days, only English people made their porridge with milk and the Scottish had developed their own little customs around their staple food. Obviously trying to make it more interesting. He had read that somewhere in Scotland the dish used to be served with puffin a now rare seabird.

They ate in hurried silence, Severus anxious to get the meeting over with and return to the castle before the meddling headmaster had the chance to notice that he had gone. After all the teachers weren't technically allowed to leave the school without the Headmaster's knowledge but he sneaked out on a regular basis using one of the many hidden passages. It wouldn't do to be caught; he had to ensure that the old man believed that he was totally on his side, that he was loyal only to him. Over the years he had found out a lot of information this way. Albus finding out about the various trips he made out of school without his knowledge could lead to disaster.

"Severus and I had an interesting conversation earlier about why he is searching for us." Standing up and arching his back, causing it to crack loudly the man informed Winifred whose lightly wrinkled face was clenched in an expression of concern and slight aggravation.

"Will you stop that Aldrich? How many times has your healer told you not to do that? Do you want to slip a disk again?" Winifred admonished, her hands on her wide hips glaring at her mate with the ease that showed, this was a conversation that they had, had many times before. Aldrich as he was now named, had the grace to look sheepish, if at least for a moment, before explaining everything that they had discussed to her.

"That is a very rare occurrence; I don't think that something like this has happened for hundreds of years." She exclaimed, thin wrinkling hands twisting in the material of her flowered apron that she had been wearing since making breakfast, her unease at the situation they were in had made her forget to remove it. "A little hatchling..."Here she sighed and Aldrich pulled her into a warm cuddle, mouthing the words 'empty nest' to Severus who nodded. It was a phenomenon that almost all those who had had children felt when they had finally flown the nest. Such feelings were a byproduct of the fact that a parent spent so much time and effort on a child, that they stayed with their parents for so long and the deep emotional bonds between the two. "I think that once you've had the chance to get yourself ready that we should bring you before the Faerie court. They should be able to help you out more than we can." Aldrich stated, pointing at the tray and plates, banishing them to the kitchen sink to be washed later, drawing his wife towards the door. They would give him some time to prepare himself for the day ahead."I just want you to promise that your intentions are pure in this. I do not want my people put at risk!"

Severus nodded gravelly, pointing his wand to his heart.

"I Severus Tobias Snape, do hereby state on my magic that my intentions towards the Faerie people are pure and that I wish, at this point in time merely to find Harry James Potter the support and guidance that he needs to live a full life."


	26. Chapter 26

A/n: We've reached over 100 favourites , nearly 200 alerts and reviews, thanks to all of you.

Chapter 26

It felt nice for someone to hold him as he cried rather than shout and scream at him to shut up. When he was very young the Dursleys had either done that or locked him up in either of his cupboards and left him there till he shut up. Healer Iain held him through all the tears, till he reached the point where he had nothing left to give, and flopped down into his embrace. He was tired, not physically; after all he had spent over a week asleep, but mentally. His brain felt like it was filled with cotton wool and thinking seemed to take a lot of effort to do.

"They used to not give me very much to eat you know." Harry whispered so quietly that Iain had to strain to hear it.

"That would explain why you are so thin. The effects of not being fed properly were hidden under the glamour." Iain told him, rocking him gently backwards and forwards, running gentle hands through his hair. "It's very important that as soon as you feel ready to, you see your reflection." Harry whimpered softly if they were all so worried about him he must look terrible. The glamour had been hiding how little he had been eating over the years and the damage this had done to him.

"I want to see it now!" He demanded, clenching his fists once again, it didn't take much to realize that the old man had put his life at risk, and he wanted to see the reality of the last fourteen/fifteen years. The young healer stared at him for a few moments, trying to ascertain whether he was ready for this. Harry had never been more ready for something in his entire life. It was now or never. Iain pulled out his wand and a piece of parchment, which he then transfigured into a small mirror before handling it cautiously to Harry. "That complete bastard, I look half dead!" Harry shouted, as Iain hastily removed it from his hand once more before he broke it.

It took some considerable time for Harry to calm down, and by the end of his latest crying fit, his eyes were red, puffy and stinging from the amount of times he had ran his hands across them. He felt like a small child what with the crying and the temper tantrums that he was experiencing lately. Iain was still sitting next to him on the narrow hospital bed, staying with him the entire time.

"Harry, Dumbledore is going to pay for what he did to you. You know that right?" Iain was looking at him again with those deep unfathomable eyes of his. Harry squirmed uncomfortably under his gaze, drawing his knees up to his chest. "Your school has made a complaint about him to the Ministry and the Auror department is perusing it. That's why I'm involved in your case." The teenager slumped further down the wall he was leaning against. Why did so many people feel that they had to look after him all of a sudden? It was unnerving and Harry wasn't particularly sure what to feel about it. He had managed perfectly fine on his own for so long that even the help of his friends was hard to accept, but that of adults always made him suspicious. Usually people either wanted something from you or they wanted to humiliate you.

At times when he was a child his Aunt and cousin would act nicely towards him, only to turn on him at a later point these were some of the worst memories that he had of his time in that house. Harry felt embarrassed beyond belief that he had believed them over and over again, because of his desperate want to have a family like everyone else, which loved them. Despite their treatment of him, a spark inside of him had told him that if he did as he was told and didn't mess up, they would love him just as much as the other members of the family. But he had slowly learned over the many years locked under the stairs wasa miracle that he was not going to be granted.

"They won't believe me and the people who he's friends with will make sure that he gets off." He whispered again, kicking himself at the way his voice cracked as he said it. Enough people had blatantly ignored him when he'd told them about his home life that he had no faith in what everyone seemed to think would happen. There was no way that this was going to have the fairy tale ending where good beats evil and the bad guy gets locked away forever. Harry Potter's life didn't work that way. After all Albus Dumbledore was an incredibly powerful man, with hundreds of contacts throughout the magical world. Surely there were plenty of people that valued the headmaster high enough that the word of a few healers, aurors and The-Boy-Who-Lived wouldn't quite cut the mustard for them. He had after all been accused of lying to the ministry on more than one occasion.

"The ICW will step in if they think that the trial is not progressing in a fair manner and the wizengamot members known to be for him will not be allowed to sit on the judging panel. Otherwise it would cause a conflict of interest." Although the healer was trying to made him feel better, Harry was still deeply concerned about the outcome of all this.

Filius Flitwick was feeling a little scared, as he made his way up to the school's infirmary. Why he hadn't asked Poppy whether Harry's friends could come and see him before telling Luna that he would take them this afternoon, he had no idea. Maybe it had something to do with the baby blue eyes of his most worried about student or the fact that she had been crying that did it. He had never been able to deal with people when they were crying, especially girls, he just panicked. Luna had things bad enough in school without her worrying about one of her close friends. Why Albus had forbidden them from talking to Harry's close knit group of friends about what had happened to him was beyond him. It wasn't as if lack of information would stop them looking for their friend. In fact it would only encourage them to go looking for him and information on what could possibly be wrong with him.

* * *

><p>His feet seemed to make an uncomfortably loud sound on the stone floor, his shoes were new and he had yet to wear them in properly. The newness, making him feel uncoordinated, as if he was much taller than he actually was. It was, he mused rather like when some of the students went through a growth spurt and their brains had yet to realise exactly where their feet and hands were, causing them to drop things and trip over a lot. The hallways were quiet around him, what with breakfast going on several floors below. The most sensible thing to do would be to get this over with quickly, then the woman could screech at him about Harry needing more rest, before he could get on with figuring out how he could fix this whole mess. Preferably without making Miss Lovegood cry once more.<p>

When he opened the door to the infirmary, it was completely silent. In one corner there was a privacy curtain drawn around the bed and Filius came to the conclusion that this must be where Harry was. The office door was half open, no doubt so that Poppy could hear anyone entering into her domain or to hear if Harry was in distress. He had barely made it a quarter of the way into the room before he was startled by a head sticking out of the office door.

"Come in Filius." She called across to him, beckoning to him with her hand, opening the door more fully. Inside the room he was able to see Kingsley Shacklebolt, who he knew from the order and another auror, calmly sitting there going through paperwork together. An enchanted quill was still scribbling away on the end of the impossibly long piece of parchment, which curled its way around the room. The two men were reading it, making notes and attempting to roll the thing up at the same time but the quill was writing much faster than they were able to. Due to this the room was quickly filling with parchment.

Minerva had made sure to inform both Pomona and he of the basic situation and the fact that Dumbledore had been removed from the school until further notice as he was expected to stand trial, the night before. She had seemed a little unsettled when they hadn't been able to make any contact with Severus. But she assured them that he was probably away trying to make contact with the Fae once again. The Deputy Headmistress, now acting head was to announce to the school this morning the news of the staffing changes.

"I hope it is alright with you Poppy," Filius said, tucking a rogue quill back into the pocket in his waist coat, of which it had begun to fall out."But I have promised Miss Lovegood and the rest of Harry's friends that they could come and see him today. She came to see me this morning worried beyond belief and crying something awful, the poor dear." He cleared his throat waiting for the tirade that was almost sure to follow his presumption that Harry was up to seeing visitors. Poppy was known to be extremely protective of her patients and Harry in particular was someone that she had developed a close bond, what with his frequent visits to see her. But it didn't happen.

"Oh that is wonderful Filius dear. I had been so worried about them all what with Albus refusing to allow us to tell the poor dears what was going on. They must have been worried out of their minds." Poppy replied distractedly, battling her way to her desk through all the parchment, being very careful not to rip it. "How I hate these ministry dictating quills." She grumbled, after finally making her way to it and opening a draw. The two aurors nodded their heads in agreement, attempting to speed up to meet demand, but it wasn't working.

"Be sure to bring them to my office first would you there are a few things that I need to inform them of before they can see him." With promises to do just that and bring them up here before dinner time, he made his way out of the infirmary and to his first class of the day. The Slytherin and Hufflepuff fifth years seemed like a doddle after what he had just been through. Despite those lessons being one of the most volatile combinations, seconded only by a Gryffindor/ Slytherin combo.


	27. Chapter 27

A/n: I hope that you all had a great Christmas whether you celebrate the festival or not. If Not i hope that you had a wonderful 24th 25th and 26th of December and forgive me the time that it has taken me to update.

Chapter 27

Winifred and Aldrich had taken him by side apparition once he had managed to sort himself out, not having been to the destination that they were heading to, meant that he was unable to travel on his own. Unlike flooing, were you only needed to know the name of your destination and the fact that it was actually connected to the floo network; apparition required an intimate knowledge of the destination. You had to be able to picture it clearly in your mind, otherwise the risk of splinching yourself would increase exponentially. Therefore it was only possible for someone to travel to a location that they had, either been to in the past or that they had seen at some point.

It had taken him awhile to notice the clothing that he was wearing was not his own. At that point he had been both embarrassed and angry to note the children's duck pattern to the pyjamas. If it ever got out that he had worn such hideous garments, Snape concluded that he would die of embarrassment after killing all the witnesses. The fact that the couple had put so much effort into looking after him was heart warming in an almost sickening Nursery story time kind of a way. The two of them had hardly known him more than five minutes before he showed them how ill he was and to his extreme luck they had felt the need to look after him. Such a thing hadn't happened to him in a very long time.

The sooner that they could all sort this out, the sooner he could return to his potions. After half a minute of unpleasant twisting and squashing sensations he found himself standing in a large waiting room, made from what seemed to be the twisted branches of some living plant, sunlight piercing its way through the many small gaps. The type of plant that it was, he was unable to determine, regardless of his extensive knowledge of plants, though it was rather reminiscent of hazel. Despite the time of year the room was surprisingly pleasantly warm such a temperature was needed after all to ensure that they didn't enter into the comas that had been mentioned in the school's Encyclopaedia. 'They must be sung some form of atmospheric charm!' he thought to himself as he was guided over to sit in a pale wooden chair over to one side.

"They should know we are here." Aldrich stated, glancing at the gold watch that was clasped around his wrist, it was a very old design, older even that the one Albus sometimes wore. Severus Shrugged it was not uncommon for families to pass watches down the family after all. The thing was probably some heirloom the man had been given. His mother had after all entrusted her golden watch to him in her will after all, and had ensured that his father would not be able to get his hands on it. Tobias had a habit of pawning valuables to pay for his alcohol addiction. Eileen wasn't going to let him do that to something that was rightfully their son's. He didn't wear it often as his field of work would damage it. Many potions were corrosive in some way or another, but it sat instead on the mantelpiece in his living room.

It was only a few moments before someone came out to greet them. A young man, with long brown hair and green eyes, eyes that was astonishingly similar to those of Lily and her son entered the room through a previously unseen door. They must have a common ancestor, Severus decided. Both James and Lily had obviously carried the necessary genes and there was no doubt that they both had distant relatives here somewhere. The genes that made someone a Faerie were after all recessive meaning that two parents who were carriers of the inheritance, had a one in four chance of having a Faerie baby, the same for a normal human baby and a fifty per cent chance of having a child that was also a carrier. As a Faerie only had two copies of the recessive gene, so long as they only mated with other Faeries, they could only have Faerie babies.

He was short, though a little taller than Harry and highly muscled. They were the type of muscles, which were only gained from years of hard manual labour, which surprised Severus greatly. This man was obviously a submissive but yet had hadn't been wrapped up like a piece of precious crystal that might break at any moment. This, he guessed was due to the fact that a pairing including a submissive male was more likely to occur within this species. In others, for example the water nymphs it was almost unheard for there to be such a mating. The majority of water nymph couples were female/female or female/male. As such they were revered or treated like dolls. A fate he was glad the boy had avoided, if only because it caused the world a great deal less of trouble. Homicide by a minor was generally looked down upon in polite society and would have also been sensationalised no doubt. The potions master had no doubt that the son of his most hated rival would resort to shoot first ask questions later if he felt it necessary. He was fiercely independent and would not be treated as if he were a woman.

Faerie culture therefore seemed to be more open minded as to the work that a male submissive was able to carry out. Such a thing was only good and had probably led to their being fewer stereotypes formed.

During his lapse of concentration, they had walked a very long way, along a winding corridor made from the same plant material as the initial room they had been in was. Though in places, more light was entering, enabling him to see the various pieces of artwork and sculptures that lined it. In some of which he was able to recognize the subject that was being portrayed. There had been a marble bust of Merlin, not two minutes ago, grim faced with a long flowing beard momentarily reminding him of the headmaster.

Not long after this shock, they reached a door, wooden and painted with a bright blue paint. At Severus's eye level there was an intricate sign painted in gold. As the man who had escorted them so far knocked upon it Severus was able to see the pattern in greater detail. There was an oval, lying on its longest edge, surrounding a golden crown, to either side of which was a set of wings. Underneath the crown were five small white diamonds, the type you found in very expensive wedding rings or the jewellery box of Narcissa Malfoy.

The door was opened from the inside and they entered. Whosoever or whatever had opened the door had either done a quick disappearing act or was invisible to him.

The room into which they now walked was unlike anything that he had ever seen in his life. Since his arrival, at this place, things seemed to become stranger and stranger. Only his experiences in the wizarding world kept him from losing his head. At first Severus thought that the ceiling was akin to that in the Great Hall back at Hogwarts, but as he looked closer, the dour potions master was able to see the way in which the clouds looked more realistic, all fluffy and three dimensional. What he had thought to be carpet was in fact thick green grass, with a deep under layer of moss, the sort that was actually comfortable to sit on. The room was less of a room and more like a garden; it might not even be a room at all. Severus blinked heavily and rubbed his forehead drawing the attention of the three Fae who he was walking with. Winifred and Aldrich looked concerned and the yet unnamed male annoyed. It seemed as if the bloke thought that he was wasting his time. He mentally sighed only just being able to stop himself from sneering at him at the last moment. He was here to get Potter some help, get Poppy and Minerva off his back and to help fulfil a promise made years ago.

There was no way he was here out of concern for the boy, and especially not out of any sort of affection. Severus was after all a man with a reputation to uphold.

Short trees, of rowan and oak, lined the way to wherever it was they were going. All were still in full leaf but then again this area of the Faerie community was also affected by the atmospheric charm and it was obviously affecting the normal growth patterns of the foliage. The path that they were taking through the trees was winding, making him unable to tell for certain how far they had walked nor, he thought with a wry smile how to get back to the entrance. Centuries of being cut off from the rest of the world hadn't made them any less wary of wizards, nor their skills any less effective than before.

The sound of voices grew louder and louder with every step they took and as they passed through a large golden archway, covered in ornately crafted vines and flowers, over which the same symbol hung attached to a small wooden plaque, Severus felt magic wash over him. He started, putting his hand into the pocket of his robes, where it latched onto the wand he had owned for over fifteen years lay. It had an oddly tickling feeling as it worked its way through to his magical core, where it stayed momentarily before withdrawing. The potions master took a step forwards, passing out from underneath the arch . The experience hadn't felt negative or damaging, more like it was checking whether he should be allowed to enter or not. Rather like those metal detectors at an airport, that beeped if you had anything metal on you. Muggles used them to try to catch people who intended harm onto others.

Mr Grumpy as Severus had named him internally had been watching him intently as he walked through the arch, left hand on its corresponding hip and hair falling artfully to the right, a look of condescension on his face. This all changed once he had passed through at a speed that made Severus nauseous. It was rather like the man had, had a personality transplant.

"I'm sorry for being so rude, but you have to understand that almost all wizards that have approached the colony have had bad intentions in the past!" He stammered out, blushing slightly at the gaze Severus was levelling him with. "My name is Tristran."

Ah so they finally had a name for this youngster. Severus almost slapped himself, he was starting to sound way too much like the headmaster. Winifred then proceeded to explain to him that everyone that came to seek the courts help, had to pass under the gate. It was imbued with magic that was able to decipher whether or not the reason for seeking them was valid and what their intentions were. An impressive piece of magic, he had to admit.

If only the school had such a thing, then they might actually be able to appoint appropriate staff. After all four out of the five Defence Against the Dark Arts teachers had actively sought to kill Harry Potter over the years. The other nearly killing him by accident.

After this they then moved on once more.

Every now and then he was able to glimpse people among the trees, some of which had their wings extended, but all of them wearing the same handmade clothes that the three he was walking with were. It seemed that such clothing was universal here. A tribal tradition or a custom that they had developed during their isolation. Everyone was wearing earthy natural tones; everything from pastel pinks and yellows through to subdued blues and bark browns. For a people so in tune with nature in its many forms it was not a shock that such colours were preferred.

Before them the room/garden opened up once again and they were able to see the large gathering of people sitting crossed legged around a grey stoned area upon which twenty one chairs stood and what was unmistakably a throne. Those seated in the various chairs varied greatly in age, another shock for Severus as all other creature councils were filled with elders, their long life spans having apparently given them more knowledge than the youth. This was not always true and they odten bogged a society down with tradition, not being able to see that a new way to do something wasn't bad.

As they passed those Fae seated furthest away from the high council began to point and whisper, word reaching the front of the crowd before they had even made it halfway to their destination. Tristran seemed to blush, whilst also grumbling under his breath, still leading them faithfully forward. It seemed that his meeting was coming ever closer, with every step he took and it felt an awful lot like walking to the gallows.


	28. Chapter 28

A/n: Happy New Year everyone! A special chapter for you all! 

Chapter 28

The entire colony had been in uproar ever since the wizard had first been noticed. So much had happened in such a short period of time that the vast majority of the population was still reeling. A wizard searching for them, was something that set everyone on edge. Centuries ago they had, had to run for their lives, using all the tricks they had been taught by their elders and the natural hiding ability that was so a part of them, in order to find somewhere safe. Numbers that had once been equal with those of the wizarding world had shrunk considerably, decimated by the bloodthirsty and the starvation that had occurred afterwards.

Many thought that the creature hunt of the past had been the catalyst that had enabled the previously rarer dominant male and submissive male relationships to be more productive. Both partners were omnivorous this meant that the unreliable sources of food that their ancestors had were better suited to them. Females, who were strictly vegetarian often died from starvation.

After so long without any direct contact it was very easy to imagine that the hunts might be starting up once again. But the Queen and the members of the high council knew, due to their continued contact with other creatures with whom they had, had strong alliances with in the past that it was not so. Such conversations and meetings were hard to plan for as it was vital that the safety of the colony and the knowledge of its whereabouts remained secret. No one (not a sausage) could know. Remaining ignorant to what everyone else was doing was only something you did, if you were arrogant and wanted to die prematurely.

* * *

><p>Severus walked behind their guide, with the elderly couple flanking him to either side. He hated attention, yet he could feel the eyes of the 'audience' boring into him. It was to be expected he thought cringing and trying to smooth nonexistent creases out of his robes. They had certainly taken care of his clothes last night, although he saw no reason for them to place him in those horrendous pyjamas. Ducks indeed! He was a fully grown man for God's sake.<p>

The beauty of the Queen seemed to become greater with every step that they took before her. A soft white light seeming to emanate from her skin highlighting the golden locks of her hair. Upon reaching the stone platform, they bowed deeply before ascending as she nodded her head and beckoned to them.

This close up it was plain to see that she was not someone that you wanted to cross. A muggle might imagine a Faerie queen to be some renaissance beauty, bejewelled, classically beautiful and wearing one of those ball gowns that all the princesses in fairy tales wore, but this was not necessarily so. The woman that sat before him and who had the power to decide whether to believe him did not conform to the traditional stereotype, though this did not make her any less handsome.

The blonde hair that she had was cropped shorter than was traditional for women to wear in the wizarding world, but was also one that Severus had seen plenty of in his childhood. Eileen (his mother) had once shown him a picture of herself just after she had meet his father, where she had had her hair cut in this exact style. In places her hair was more white than blonde, showing her age, wrinkles had begun to take hold, slowly revealing the past smiles and laughter that she had experienced. As the queen, it seemed that she was required to wear the dress, but sticking out from underneath the hem of her skirts was a shoe. A dragon hide boot if he was not mistaken, such a thing was not to be expected from a lady of such a high station. He smiled fondly it was something that Narcissa Malfoy would bitch about for days. Luckily he didn't have to listen to her anymore. From the looks of things, Harry would like it here.

"My Queen Nirenia and the esteemed members of the High council!" Tristran called, ensuring that he followed the protocol for such an occasion to the letter. "Aldrich and Winifred have brought the human Severus Snape before you."

At the word human the assembled people had suddenly become deadly silent. You could have heard a pin drop it was that absolute. Some clasped their hands to their mouths in obvious shock, one woman screaming and having to be bitten by a young submissive in order to calm her down. Everywhere, wings were unfolding, talons and fangs emerging and two of the dominants were standing in front of their obviously pregnant partners shielding them from attack. From the severity of the reactions that those gathered were expressing, Severus came to the conclusion that they hadn't been informed of the situation. Probably as a way of avoiding mass hysteria, little good as it was doing now.

"I see." Queen Nirenia stated imperiously, looking at the small group before glancing over at the crowd around them. "My people I ask that you listen quietly to the proceedings keeping an open mind to what is being said. The fact that this man has been able to come so far is indication that at the very least he does not seek to harm us."

Snape could feel himself sweating under everyone's gaze, hands becoming clammy and his heartbeat drumming loudly in his ears. Despite this, he had over a decade of experience in coping in precisely these sorts of situations and he forced himself to calm down. "Severus Snape I ask that you inform the council why you are seeking this colony."

"Your Majesty, I am Professor Severus Snape from Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry in Scotland." Severus started to reply. Various murmurs of recognition could be heard around them, one of the older councillors whispering something into the ear of a younger one. "A little over a week ago, one of the students at the school went through a Creature inheritance and as a result has become a submissive male Faerie."

"That is impossible!" An elderly male dominant cried, raising his fist in the air, brown eyes sparking in fury.

"Sit down Theodore or I will ensure that you are removed from this council session." Nirenia reprimanded, her face screwing up in some unidentifiable emotion. "It is a very unusual occurrence I will admit to that, but due to the fact that the genes involved in making someone a Faerie are recessive it is likely that there are many wizarding families carrying the gene."

A middle aged submissive approached him carrying a strange device it looked rather like a cross between a mobile phone and a cattle prod. Such a combination made Severus innately suspicious of the intent to which it was being used. A beeping noise was being emitted by it, becoming more frequent and higher pitched as it neared him. The man was looking at the thing intently, his long black hair moving to cover his face and he was nervously tapping his foot upon the floor.

Severus stood there, attempting to ignore what was going on, expertly trying to prevent his notorious short temper from rearing its head. He hadn't come this far and gotten hypothermia just to blow it at the last moment. To distract himself, he took to examining the clothes that his 'attacker' was wearing. Unlike the majority of the Fae here who wore simple obviously handmade clothes, he was wearing a long blue tunic embroidered with silver stars and tight brown trousers. The rest of the council were also wearing fine clothes. Like in most societies, he noted, it was obviously a show of status. "What are the results Councillor?" The Queen asked, her face once again a blank mask.

"Mr Snape is covered in the pheromones that an unmated submissive male secretes. I would like to know how this came to be so."

* * *

><p>Friday Afternoon<p>

Professor Flitwick had entered their afternoon Herbology lesson, informed Professor Sprout that they were excused from the rest of the lesson and had escorted all six of them into the infirmary. Herbology was one of the very few lessons that they all took together. Professor Sprout had given them knowing and worried glances, obviously having been told the full story behind why they were allowed to leave the lesson in such an important time. The class had just begun potting up their project plants.

The past few weeks had been spent researching a plant of their choosing, magical or muggle, writing reports on its preferred habitat, the average height to which it could grow and it's nutritional needs as well as many other things including its medicinal properties. This plant would be part of a project that would take them into the New Year. The healthier the plant the more points they would receive towards their final grade at the end of next year.

The trip up to the hospital wing had been quick and filled with a tense silence. Everyone was excited to finally be with their friend again, but the fact that he had spent so long in there after a creature inheritance was frightening. No-one knew what to expect. There was also the disturbing fact that the usually jolly Professor Flitwick also seemed very concerned and had told them that Madame Pomfrey wanted to talk to them before she would let them see Harry. This had Luna and Seamus on edge even more so than they had been in the first place.

Once in the infirmary they could see the fact that it was completely empty apart from one bed which was curtained off. It was one of the beds that Harry so frequently spent his time and where they visited him. Which was often, what with Quidditch injuries and Voldermort trying to kill him. Normally Harry would be laying there, either asleep after just being healed or awake and able to talk with them. Luna could feel tears starting to form in the corners of her eyes, but she blinked heavily forcing them back. Now was not the time for crying. Harry needed her and she was going to be there no matter what. Crying she could do later!

To her left, Neville was sniffing the air, a strange expression on his face. It looked like a combination between confusion and hunger, a combination which unsettled her greatly.

"Are you alright Nev?" Luna asked reaching out and taking his larger hand into hers, stroking the back of it gently with her fingers. He didn't reply. Fred and George were at the front of the group, marching in time to the hurried half running gait of their charms professor, who was leading them away from 'Harry's bed', and towards the Matrons office. Their hands were tightly entwined, showing just how worried that they were about the whole situation.

* * *

><p>Flitwick knocked heavily on the door, its thick oaken wood dampening some of the noise. Neville was feeling strange; a strong smell was invading his nostrils. It wasn't unpleasant, though it reminded him of something that he couldn't quite remember. The scent was in of itself rather comforting and made him feel a little light headed, therefore not fully noticing that Luna had tried to talk to him.<p>

As soon as the door opened, the twins were across the threshold and each sitting in one of the empty chairs that had been arranged around the fireplace. Seamus and Dean sat in the chairs next to them and Luna guided him into one of the chairs at the end of the semicircle. He squeezed her hand to let her know that he appreciated what she had done. In the office, the smell was much less pungent; maybe it was from some sort of cleaning product that the Matron used on the ward to protect against infection.

Professor Flitwick bade them goodbye, handing them each a note from the now Headmistress, stating that they were excused from lessons for the rest of the day and that she had informed their teachers of this.

Madame Pomfrey took the last remaining chair and proceeded to inform them of what exactly was wrong with Harry and what he had been through. She obviously thought that it would be necessary for them to be forewarned of how bad things really were.

"Harry as you probably know by now went through a creature inheritance over a week ago. During this he turned into a submissive Faerie." The matron stated clearly, looking at each of their faces in turn in order to gage their reactions.

"So that was what Ron was talking about!" Fred exclaimed, dropping his brother's hand and turning in his seat to face them all properly.

"But how the hell did he find out?" Seamus cried fisting his hands in his lap.

"Dumbledore!" Neville answered, his voice deepened with rage.


	29. Chapter 29

A/n: Here you go, the chapter that you have all been waiting for. The one where Harry's friends finally turn up. I hope you enjoy.

Chapter 29

Madame Pomfrey was shocked beyond belief as the teenagers in her office told her about what young Ronald Weasley had said, but she was even more shocked that Albus had told him such sensitive medical information about a student. Ronald from what she had heard during his time at the school, had anger management issues, a burning jealousy of Harry and a domineering personality. Poppy had repeatedly asked the Headmaster for his permission to enrol him in some anger management lessons over the years and that request had been denied every time.

With Dumbledore being the magical guardian of all the children within the school, whilst they were within its walls, it was impossible to get the boy the help that he so desperately needed. If he had been given the knowledge and support to control his anger and the ability to talk about his feelings in his first year it was highly likely that it would have changed a lot of things.

Ronald Weasley was the sort of boy who couldn't be able to keep a secret if he had been paid to do it, his drive to make himself popular was so strong that he would take on anything that he perceived to be standing in his way.

Albus had of course unfortunately been at the meeting in which they had discussed Harry's creature inheritance. As she was absolutely sure that he had not been able to access her filing cabinet nor would anyone working on Harry's case spill the beans.

What with all the things the man had done, especially the ever increasing number that had been perpetrated against Harry the nurse couldn't understand why she was so shocked. Poppy made a note to talk about this with Minerva and Severus whenever he got back from wherever it was he was trying to find Harry the support of his own kind. There was only so much that they could do for him after all.

"I promise you all that I will bring this up with the headmistress." She sighed heavily. Nothing was ever easy when it came to Harry. "There is also the fact that Harry was wearing a glamour and had various spells placed upon him. These altered his appearance and were a huge drain on him magically. When they were removed this morning it was discovered that Harry is very underweight."

Neville was shaking whether from grief or anger it was unclear, his face hidden behind his hair. He fumbled in the inner pocket of his school robes, pulling out an obviously well used notebook, before handing it to the matron.

* * *

><p>Her left eyebrow raised in question as to both the reason that she was being given this, and also as to what it contained. Upon opening it, it became apparent as to what was in it. There was a feeding plan, one it seemed that had been well used and followed strictly, documenting the changes between each of the years Harry had been at Hogwarts. A large part of her was glad that Harry had someone that had noticed that he needed help and who had supported him through an obviously trying time, but the other half was livid. Why had Neville not come to her with the concerns that she could see written in margins and scrawled at the ends of reports on each weeks progress.<p>

"Mr Longbottom I will be needing a word with you after you have visited Harry!" Poppy stated firmly, tucking the plan under the clip on her notice board. She made a mental note to talk about it with Iain, Kingsley and Gareth later.

The Matron then went on to give the teenagers a lecture on how to act around her patient, but this was interrupted by her floo flaring. She chivvied them out of the door and with one last stern look closed the door.

It was a frantic Professor Vectra saying that one of the Hufflepuffs in her class had gone into her Veela inheritance finally. They had been expecting it ever since the first of October.

* * *

><p>The gang made their way quietly over to the curtained off bed, still reeling from the information that they had been made partial to. It was hard to believe that something so horrible had happened to their friend, that they hadn't noticed that he was wearing a glamour...<p>

"It's a good thing i brought you isn't it?" Luna crooned, pulling out a green stuffed rabbit from somewhere on her person. Fluffy and wearing what looked like a purple top hat, with holes cut out for the ears to fit through, it was a curious looking thing. "The Nihwaff-Diltang said that Harry would need you."

The boys chose to ignore her idiosyncrasies especially those were she talked to things that they couldn't see. Despite their initial worry for her mental health, whoever/whatever she was talking to had a tendency of being correct. Harry had thought that she might have a latent seeing gift, though he also thought that it might be her way of telling them something she was unable to, or uncomfortable saying herself. The short Ravenclaw was notoriously bad at making conversation. Years of bullying had seen to that.

A deep breath was taken collectively as they finally reached the flowered privacy curtain that was separating their friend from the rest of the world. The moment that they stepped onto the other side of it, Harry would need them to remain strong and treat him exactly as they had always done. He was a boy who hated pity in any form.

It was Fred that pulled at the opening, exposing them to their friend for the first time in well over a week.

He was sitting in the bed, covers tucked neatly around him, holding a book. He had yet to notice them yet, and that was great as, even though they had been talked through exactly what Harry's physical health was like, it had still come as a massive shock. It took everyone a few seconds to compute that this was actually their friend. His hair, that usually stuck up all over the place lay limp and rather brittle looking. Almost appearing that if you touched it, it was likely to break off in your hand. Harry's skin was unusually pale and stretched taught across his frame.

Luna was the first to break out of the spell, waving to the man, that they hadn't even noticed standing in the corner. Healer Iain would be staying there to ensure that the excitement of seeing them all, didn't do him any harm. Her jelly sandals made a rather loud sound on the stone floor, catching Harry's attention immediately.

* * *

><p>Snapping away his book closed, he dropped it and turned, reaching out his arms for his beloved 'little sister'. A slight tremble in his arms was noticeable, but he ignored it in favour of hugging her instead. There's was a relationship that an incredibly small amount of things could ever destroy. Luna had told Harry so many things about her past and her inner thoughts that it was inconceivable that she would ever shun him for the things that had come out recently. They had an understanding between them that either could say whatever they wanted on any subject and the other wouldn't be offended or laugh. Compared to a lot of the things that he had all ready done, this wasn't in fact one of the more shocking ones if he was truly honest with himself. After all hadn't he killed a Basilisk when he was twelve.<p>

Upon finally reaching Harry, she wrapped her arms around him, cradling his head in the crook of her neck and running a hand soothingly down his back. She made no comment on the way his vertebrae were sticking out almost the entire way down his spine, though it was obvious that she could feel them. In her arms harry felt safe and unconditionally loved, she was after all the sister of his heart.

"I missed you so much Harry!" Luna cried tightening her hold again, wrapping herself round him, rather like a monkey he had seen once during that disastrous zoo trip. Harry knew just how much all of her friends meant to the fifth year Ravenclaw. Eventually she withdrew and presented him with a stuffed toy. "He's called Maurice and the Nargles want you to have him." Harry nodded taking the vividly coloured rabbit, running his fingers through the soft fur of Maurice's ears, it was better sometimes to just go with the flow when around Luna sometimes. Having never, in his memory, had a stuffed toy, Harry found himself becoming attached to it rather quickly in a way that truly confused him. It felt as though if he lost Maurice, it would bring on another one of those panicky crying fits that he had, had before.

He lifted his head from Maurice, as Luna perched herself on the end of the bed and bid the rest of his friends to enter. A heavy blush began to creep across his face at being caught holding a children's toy, and he pushed it gently under the blankets out of view. He was sixteen not six. As soon as they entered the space the twins headed straight for him. In synchronisation they began carding their four hands through his hair, identical expressions of concern on their faces. Dean and Seamus joined Luna at the end of his bed (she had untangled herself and scooted down there as he was distracted) and Neville looked like he was going to cry.

He didn't know how to cope with all this right at this very moment and so, he pushed some of the more confusing and complex emotions aside, concentrating on the fact that he had his friends by his side once again.

"It's so cool that you had a creature inheritance Harry." George remarked from his position beside his head, fingers still making paths through his disgusting hair.

Someone was truly a friend, he realised when they were there for you no matter what had happened to you, what you looked like, smelled like or what you had done. In his way, George was trying to make him feel better about everything that was happening and take his mind off the fact that they were seeing him without a glamour on for the first time ever. Something that he had indeed forgotten about until just then. They seemed to be taking it as well as he could have hoped for them to.

"At least it wasn't actually painful!" Harry remarked, sliding his body further over to the wall, in order accommodate Neville and the twins. Iain had take out the drip ten or so minutes before his friends had arrived, as it had finally emptied of the salty water that had been in there. Iain had called it saline solution, but it was basically salt and sterile water both vital in order to rehydrate his body and increase his blood pressure which was rather low. He was eternally glad that that needle was gone and that he hadn't had to have another 'dose'. Iain had told him that his kidneys were now performing much better than they had before and that with eating and drinking regularly his kidney function would return to normal.

"What was it like?" Dean asked from the foot of the bed. "My Mum's half brother is a Fire Demon and he said that his changing was agonisingly painful. He thought that he was actually dying it was that bad. I thought that they all were somewhat painful. "

"No it wasn't painful for me, I just felt a little bit ill and I passed out in one of the hallways on the way up to the infirmary. Apparently part of the changing processes for Faerie is to build a cocoon before turning into a chrysalis."

"Like a caterpillar turning into a butterfly." Luna added smiling, when she noticed that Fred looked confused.


	30. Chapter 30

A/n: So close to 200 reviews now :) You are all amazing. I'm sad to say that as i'm starting Uni soon, the speed that i put up new chapters will probably slow considerably fro what it is at the moment but i will endeavour to put up at least one a week for you. I will NOT leave this story.

And now for the story...

Chapter 30

"Like a caterpillar turning into a butterfly." Luna added smiling, when she noticed that Fred looked confused.

"Yeah!" Harry replied turning bright red. This was becoming embarrassing. Luna thought that he was a butterfly and how girly was that.

After he had explained the whole changing process to his friends, they sat there stunned for a few moments. He didn't blame them, it wasn't something that happened every day. Dean was leaning forward in anticipation, eager to learn more about him and what he had been through. Not on a weird fanboyish way like Colin had a habit of doing but in genuine anticipation. He was always one for a good story and many people in Gryffindor thought that he should have been sorted into Ravenclaw because he could often be found with his nose in a book.

Luna was smiling and staring at a poster on the opposite wall, seeming as if she wasn't listening at all. Harry however knew that she was. This behaviour was something that she did a lot, especially in class. People believed that just because she was quite most of the time, it meant that she couldn't hear what they were saying. Or maybe they also believed that she didn't have any friends so who could she tell what she had heard. Luna was neither deaf nor alone and so was the group's major source of gossip. As she was female, Luna had another advantage on the gossip collecting front. Being female meant that she was able to use the girl's toilet, somewhere it seemed that girls did a lot of talking.

Neville thankfully looked a lot better than he had earlier, no traces of tears in his eyes anymore. Despite this he did look a little odd, but it was hard for Harry to put his finger on exactly what it was that was wrong. The two of them were very close, even when he has been friends with Ron and Hermione, Neville had always been someone that he could talk to.

Gred and Forge were leaning against one another, heads touching softly, their fingers still running through his hair, it was beginning to make him feel sleepy, but he staved off the yawn that had tried to emerge from his mouth. The twins were risking so much to be his friend, their brother was one of those things. They had come back to school in order to be with him, something that they wouldn't have done, otherwise, even with their mother breathing like a dragon down their necks. Mrs Weasley was a tyrant in their house, after all Bill was in Egypt, Charlie in Romania with his boyfriend and Percy was somewhere in London and had cut ties with the rest of the family. That didn't look like a family that was loving and close to one another.

It had been so long since they were together that it was important that they spent some quality time with one another to make up for it. No doubt they had been worried about him, what with the amount of time he had been out of action.

Seamus winked at him, nudging Dean in the ribs, causing him to snap out of his daze with a swear word or two. To this the feisty Irish man, laughed raucously, early falling off the bed, whilst Dean pulled funny faces at him. The two of them being together (as in together together) was something that Harry found hard to understand. It wasn't that he was against their relationship or that he thought they didn't make a great couple. It was more the fact that out of the two relationships that he had seen and the one he had participated in, this was the only one where you could see the love for each other that the two had. Sometimes it made him feel a little uncomfortable.

His Aunt and Uncle didn't show any loving emotions towards each other and at times Harry found it hard to understand why they had married each other in the first place. To his knowledge they had never so much as held hands in front of either him or Dudley. Not seeing that kind of stuff growing up made him feel a little strange when he saw other people doing it.

Seamus and Dean hugging or kissing just made him feel a strange emotion inside himself. It was probably embarrassment more than anything else. Like he was intruding on something that was incredibly private, or someone was explaining something to him that he didn't quite understand.

Iain coughed softly, reminding them all, that he was still there, something that they had seemed to have forgotten. It was peculiar how easily that you could forget something as obvious as having someone else in the room with you, given the right circumstances.

"Sorry." Dean whispered, his eyes lowering to the bed sheet that he was now patting softly.

"What was breakfast like this morning?" Asked Harry, in order to break the tension that he could feel developing all around them. He was also desperate for word of the outside world, being in here was starting to drive him up the walls. It seemed to work wonders as each of his friends clamoured to be heard.

"You should have seen Ron's face it was hilarious."

"Dumbledore's been kicked out at last."

"I'd have done it myself given the chance."

"McGonagall is in charge now."

"Apart from a few people, no-one cares Harry you don't have to worry."

"The Nargles are leaving now, they feel much safer."

It took some time for them to explain what had actually gone on, and even longer for it to sink in properly.

Dumbledore had been removed from his office by the Ministry and was awaiting trial for what he had done to Harry. Though it seemed likely that he would also face a number of other charges if the ministry had their way.

They really had done it and there really was going to be criminal proceedings taken against the old man. He could scarcely believe it, as it was hard to believe that people had come to his rescue in such a way. Days ago he had no knowledge as to how drastically his life would change and how many people would come out of the woodwork in order to help him through this. Sure many, like Rufus Scrimgeour had their own agenda, but they were still supporting him. Neville had made it quite clear to him that he was never going to have to go back to the house of his relatives and if he wanted to, he was sure that his Grandmother would be okay with him staying at his house.

That was amazing and he was incredibly thankful t his friend, but he knew that he could never impose in his life like that especially now he had decided that he was finally free to live his life as he wanted. No more Voldermort, no more Dumbledore and no more Dursleys! The world was his oyster and it was time to get his life back. With his father's family being so old it was likely that there was at least one other property left to him. Harry would have to go to Gringotts and find out.

Their head of house had become the new Head teacher, making Professor Flitwick her deputy. This meant that their house had a new head, due to the fact that McGonagall would be unable to manage her new responsibilities in addition to the vast majority of the old ones. She was still going to teach Transfiguration until the next year though, so that she would have the time to find them an appropriately skilled teacher to replace her.

Apparently their new head of house was going to be the Creature Studies teacher as he had the most free time out of all the other teachers. Due to the fact that Harry was still in the hospital wing he was postponing his speech and meetings with all of them until a later date, when everyone was available.

As no-one in their year had met him, due to him only traditionally only teaching the sixth years after the Christmas holidays and the seventh years, there was a lot of mystery surrounding the man. The twins of course had met him, having been in their sixth year last year, but they were keeping curiously quiet about it, no doubt to infuriate them.

Some of the first years apparently believed that he was a vampire but no-one knew whether he was even a creature at all. Luna informed Harry of the fact that their lessons with him were to be moved forward due to his inheritance and the need to teach them all about tolerance and the fact that it was likely that others might enter the change a lot earlier than normal due to the emotional upheaval of the last year. Many had lost their lives during the year Voldermort had come back to his powers and before Harry finally managed to defeat him. A lot had also happened in the muggle world and so the school was making preparations for an influx of students going through their inheritances.

Harry was glad that people were taking the fact that he was now a mythical creature well, he had been worried that it would be the parseltongue incident of his second year all over again. He wouldn't be able to stand it if the bullying that he had went through that year picked back up to the same level again. Some of the muggleborns in the lower years had had problems with the inheritance it seemed (according to Fred), their lack of knowledge in the subject leading to fear but the older students had begun to sort that out. In the seventh year there were a much larger than average number of students who were creatures this year than there had been in others and they were quick to silence anyone preaching hatred.

The new headmistress had made a speech informing the entire school of the parchment that the ministry had provided her with, and its purpose. As the school had been under the thumb of the former headmaster for so long, the Auror department was determined to ensure that all students past and present had the ability to make formal complaints about him that would be investigated. They basically wanted to find as much dirt on the man as they possibly could, the more evidence that there was the easier the trial would be o everyone concerned. The parchment was spelled so that it could not be tampered with and when writing on it, you had to use a special quill that made you unable to write lies. All students were assured by the headmistress that as they were under eighteen their names would not be allowed to be published by the press, though they may be mentioned in court.

The new headmistress had made a speech informing the entire school of the parchment that the ministry had provided her with, and its purpose. As the school had been under the thumb of the former headmaster for so long, the Auror department was determined to ensure that all students past and present had the ability to make formal complaints about him that would be investigated. They basically wanted to find as much dirt on the man as they possibly could, the more evidence that there was the easier the trial would be o everyone concerned. The parchment was spelled so that it could not be tampered with and when writing on it, you had to use a special quill that made you unable to write lies. All students were assured by the headmistress that as they were under eighteen their names would not be allowed to be published by the press, though they may be mentioned in court.

* * *

><p>Everyone had stayed with Harry until tea time when all but Neville were shivvied out. Harry had after all just been through an exhausting medical procedure, not long after going through his inheritance and needed all the rest he could get if Madame Pomfrey was to release him the next day.<p>

Madame Pomfrey wanted to see him about the journal that he had kept over the years containing the eating plan that he and Harry had created, fine tuning the elements until it became like a second nature to them both. There was no doubt in his mind that he was in some serious trouble. In not telling someone about Harry's eating problem he had put his friend's life at risk. At the very least he should have told one of the teachers or a prefect about how very little his friend ate, but something had stopped him from doing that. Back then there had been a feeling that if he told someone that he would be putting Harry at risk and that it was his job to look after the tiny boy.

It was stupid he knew. Back then they had barely known each other, what with Harry being so close to Ron and Hermione but the pull towards him was so strong. Harry wasn't his he had no claim to him. The feeling had been very alien back when he was a naive little eleven year old, now Neville was much older, he knew that it was the beginning of a crush that would only grow over the years. Such a thing was no excuse for what he had done, those feelings of possession were not enough to excuse his actions and in fact they only made him feel worse.

Harry was someone who had been through so much, that it was amazing that he remained so innocent. There was so much in the world that he had absolutely no knowledge of and yet he was also old before his time. The boy he had known for so many years had grown, seen death, known betrayal of trust and abuse and had finally began to grow into a man.

The abuse he had been through made his insides boil in anger if he had but spoken up maybe Harry wouldn't be in the state that he was today. Maybe if he had gone to someone they would have noticed the glamour and Harry would have been saved years of his life away from the monsters that were his blood relatives. Unfortunately you couldn't live your life on what ifs and it was time for him to face the music.

They finally entered the Matron's office which was now deathly silent and Neville could feel his hands beginning to shake, so he clenched them tightly by his sides in order to best disguise it. Madame Pomfrey showed him over to one of the seats that he had sat in an hour or two ago though now it felt like days. Closing the door behind her with a loud clunk, she made her way over to him, taking a seat that was pulled up to the desk.

Upon the desk lay the book, open at one of the many hundreds of entries.

"Neville I am very disappointed that you didn't come to me with you concerns earlier. I am not going to lecture you about how much danger you have put your friend in as you are a smart boy and have obviously worked that out for yourself." The room became even more silent than before, something that he had thought impossible moments earlier. Neville hated it when authority figures went down the 'I am disappointed' route, it made him feel ashamed of his actions even more so than he had been before. He much preferred it when a teacher shouted at him. "I can see from the brief glance I have been able to give this, that you have obviously given a lot of time an effort over to this. I would like to know where you attained the information needed to create something of this high a standard."

"My Mum used to be a healer and I have her textbooks and some of her papers. Grandmother gave it to me when I got my Hogwarts letter. Dean's Mum also helped a lot." He replied, taking the compliment as it being her way of saying that he wasn't in too much trouble. The past was after all in the past and there was little either of them could do about it.

The Matron lifted an eyebrow and he expanded on the information that he had given her. "Dean's Mum is a dietician who tends to work with people that have had Anorexia Nervosa. I collated information from the two and from some of the healing texts in the library to create it. Harry also helped me with some of it though." The nervousness that he was feeling melted away as she smiled at him.

"I will need these to help create Harry's treatment plan, they look pretty good and I don't think that I will need to change very much about them due to the amount of research that you have put in. It will be better for us all if we follow something that Harry has previous experience with after all. Is there anything that you would like to say or ask?" Here the matron closed the journal, turning around fully in the seat to look at him.

"He won't eat something if you try to force him, you have to encourage him to do it. Also if you put too much on his plate he gets daunted and won't even try so you have to be careful." Neville coughed, a tickle in his throat getting the better of him at the end of his speech. He blushed and looked at his feet.

A/n: I hope that you enjoyed this chapter. :)

...raven...


	31. Chapter 31

**A/n: Hello everyone! We made it to 200 reviews with the last chapter. I want thank all of you that reviewed especially all of you that review regularly. Anyway on with the new chapter. **

Chapter 31

Back at the Faerie colony 

"What are the results Councillor?" The Queen asked, her face once again a blank mask.

"Mr Snape is covered in the pheromones that an unmated submissive male secretes. I would like to know how this came to be so."

Snape found himself beginning to squirm under the multitude of eyes staring at him, seeming to bore holes right through his body and out the other side. He checked his Occlumency shields and found them untouched, he felt rather naked stood up here on the platform subconsciously checking that his robes were buttoned correctly. Before he began to speak to the assembled Faeries, he opened the note that Poppy had sent to him via her patronus earlier that morning, it wouldn't do for him to get any information wrong. It certainly wouldn't do if it looked to them that he had been lying.

"Harry, the boy that I mentioned was under the care of both the school healer and me whist he went through his changing process. I have been looking to contact someone ever since we found out what creature he was." Severus explained, keeping eye contact with Queen Nirenia throughout. She seemed to believe him thus far and nodded for him to continue, whilst death glaring the Fae who was chattering away to himself in the chair next to her. She did not look best pleased to say the very least. "He collapsed on the way to see the healer and created his cocoon in a corridor. When we found him, we proceeded to sterilise the area and ensure that he would not be disturbed by placing a confundus charm as well as many others on the area where he was, so that the students couldn't accidentally harm him."

"That was well thought of, many would forget to perform such essential cleaning spells. The immune system of a newly changed Fae is very weak and would not be able to cope with being bombarded with viruses and bacteria." An elderly female stated from towards the left edge of the semi circle, her hands stroking through pure white hair and bright blue eyes focussed upon him. Severus was strongly reminded of the stare of Luna Lovegood.

"It came to light after we performed a standard diagnostic charm upon him that there was something strange occurring. After some research, the two of us found that he had, had a complex glamour placed upon him, of which he had no knowledge of."

At this piece of information, the place was filled with angry snarls and hisses, wings that had only just begun to fold back into their owner's backs were now out once again and a young male submissive was being comforted by what could only be his father. Even here people knew just how bad such a thing was. Placing a spell of that kind on someone was dangerous and to do it without their consent... Even with consent the person wearing the spell needed to have a full understanding of what exactly it was that they were getting themselves involved with.

"How could he not notice something like that!" A woman cried out from the crowd, standing on a chair and flailing what looked like a large green leather handbag in her left hand. For a few seconds it looked as if she was actually going to throw it at his head, but someone pulled her down and wrested the bag from her. It looked like today was going to be even longer and more trying than he had first thought it would be. If he was someone who believed in a higher being, now would be a moment were he would have thought that he was being punished for past transgressions. Not in his wildest dreams had the potions master ever thought that he would be standing here trying to get the son of his hated school rival some help.

"Silence!" The Queen shouted, standing up from her throne, tiara glistening in the light that fell from the enchanted ceiling. At this, the entire room drew quiet instantly. Rather like Molly Weasley, she seemed to be a woman that you didn't mess with unless you had a death wish. With a casual wave of her hand he began to recount the tale to them all once more. Queen Nirenia sat back down in her seat at folded her hands in her lap, looking down at him from her raised position.

"The headmaster had always forbidden the use of any deep scanning on him and as he is an orphan and lives with his muggle relatives the man is his magical guardian even when school is not in session. Poppy the school's healer was able to sense the magical signature coming from the glamour and after a quick talk with Harry she confirmed that he hadn't known anything about it and that the Headmaster was fully responsible. "

"How awful!" Winifred half screamed, bringing a hand to her face in shock, whilst her husband cracked his knuckles. All around them pandemonium was occurring; it was obvious that as a people they took children to be a very important thing, as their current actions showed. Children were something that should be cherished and Snape dreaded to think what might happen once they were aware of all the facts. No doubt they would be a force to be reckoned with. On some level he felt sorry for his ex-employer, if Rufus Scrimgeour didn't get to him, it seemed likely that some vigilante justice might occur.

"Needless to say the deputy headmistress went straight to the ministry and contacted the Auror department. The headmaster has been removed from the school and is awaiting trial! With the aid of a St Mungo's Paediatric healer we were able to remove the glamour and a multitude of other spells that were encasing him and drawing on his magic."

"It seems that this is an extremely dire situation that we find ourselves in. This child is certainly in need of our support as he cannot be expected to grow into his inheritance fully or understand our ways without it." The Queen stated, brushing a strong hand over the top of her skirts shakily. "I wish that we had met in much better circumstances than this. Centuries have passed without any interaction between our kind Severs Snape. It is obvious that this needs to change."

* * *

><p>After much debate between the council and some further information being divulged by Severus, they decided that the best course of action would be to send a pair over to the school that would be able to teach him the ways of his kind as well as be there as a parental influence.<p>

The potions master had agreed to this whole heartedly, Harry would not take well to being uprooted into a completely new society where he didn't know anyone. Strangers coming to see him in his territory, where he felt safe and knew the lay of the land as it were was a whole different ball game. He had also told them in as much detail as he was aware about the family members that he had been staying with. This had led to a decision by the council for them to petition the Ministry of Magic for custody of the boy in both worlds as was their right and the right of all creature councils. Doing this would mean that they would have to come out of their self imposed exile, but it would be very beneficial to the entire colony.

Coming out of the safety that their exile had brought them, back into ordinary magical society would mean that they could set up the lower council once more. This was the governing body that dealt with issues surrounding other creature groups and the wizarding population. Having this up and running was a major priority as it meant that once established they could charge Dumbledore with endangering the life of a minor of their species. A charge that was incredibly severe among any of the creature groups, this meant that if the wizarding world failed to do its duty to the boy they would be able to swoop down and crush the old man.

The Queen also stated that she was looking for volunteers among the mated pairs that had, had children, but who currently had an empty nest and were skilled with dealing with 'problem' children. Supporting Harry after all wouldn't be an easy thing to do as he was stubborn and very used to being fiercely independent. An empty nest would mean that the couple had the time and energy to sink into looking after this child, for however long it was that he needed them, maybe becoming his adoptive parents on the behalf of the entire colony. Having something stable that he knew that he could fall back onto would be something that Harry desperately needed it seemed.

Having someone at the castle who could inform the staff as to what help and extra support the child may need within his schooling as well as being able to provide Harry and the other students with information about their species would be a vital resource. The staff only had a very out of date book, written by a human and a smattering of other literature from which they could get information and from what Severus had told them, they didn't seem to be very reliable. Not providing this information that was so sorely needed might result in Harry becoming hurt by it and that was something the boy didn't need to add to his life experiences.

Despite their wish to participate in this, Aldrich and Winifred had to back out as their youngest daughter was due to give birth any day now and they had promised her that they would be there for her. It was her first pregnancy and she was slightly terrified about it. Unfortunately she was someone who had an extremely small pain threshold and it was likely to take a long time for them to calm her down. The expectation and fear of pain often lengthened labour, because it caused the various muscles involved to contract making it harder for the eggs to pass through the opening. She would have pain killers certainly but it was an experience that almost all first timers dreaded, not having any other experiences to compare it to.

Very few hands in the crowd had gone up. It seemed that there were very few people actually old enough to fit within the parameters that the Queen had asked for, at least not in the room. Very few children were here either, maybe, like in thousands of other tribes like structures across the world, the grandparents were important people, who provided a lot of childcare. There was also the fact that as no one had left the colony to mingle with the wizarding world for centuries; leaving was obviously going to be a very daunting thing to do. That was enough to put even some of the most adventurous of people off without all the issues that were flying about.

Faeries tended to have clutches of eggs right up until the submissive/female went into the menopause in their hundred and twenties. Like all magical beings, they had much longer life expectancies than muggles. Though there were the odd few who decided that they didn't want children or who didn't want any more than they already had and used birth control to get around it.

Two men were making their way to the front, the taller looking down at the other every few seconds with a soft questioning look in his eyes. It was met every time by a steely look of determination, the look of someone who knew what they wanted and would do anything in their power in order to get it. A shiver went up Severus' spine it was a look that he had seen a lot of during his days as a death eater. Many of those men (they were almost exclusively men) would have done anything to be stood where he was now. No doubt they would have been fantasising about the gold they could make from the corpses of all these lovely people in the black market potions trade.

He shook his head to clear such macabre thoughts from it. It seemed that as he had gotten his major points across the meeting was beginning to draw to a close at last. At this rate he would be able to get back to his most sensitive of potions before it blew up the entire castle and everyone in it. He hated brewing the Unicorn salve that Hagrid required for their local herd. There were so many precautions that he had to take in order to brew it correctly that he was almost always teetering on the edge of nervous collapse by the time it was finished. Severus was only glad that it took the groundkeeper so long to get through it, meaning that it wasn't a procedure that he had to do often.

The two had now reached the front of the crowd and had begun to ascend the dais, platform structure thing that they were stood on. As they came closer it was easier for him to make out their appearance more and more clearly. The taller of the two was relatively lithe for a dominant, with longish blonde hair pulled back in a short pony tail. His face held traces of paint and a tool belt was clipped about his waist. From it hung a hammer, wrench and what looked like a muggle cordless drill. His husband had much darker hair with similarly dark eyes to match and was incredibly muscular. The two were a walking paradox as to what the stereotype of a dominant male and submissive male relationship would be like. And once again Severus found himself smiling.

****A/n: I'v**e just written the 100th page for this story *wipes sweat from brow* **


	32. Chapter 32

**A/n: I hope that you like the new chapter!**

**Chapter 32**

Thaddeus and Edwin had come to the council meeting mainly because they were bored more than anything else. Having a house full of children for the past thirty years had been heaps of fun, as well as stress and now that their hatchlings had all finally flow the nest, the house was so unbelievably quiet. Both of them were still considered to be very young among the colony and could have had more children if they wanted to but those days were behind them.

They had done the making babies part of their lives, as much as they loved all of their children it was nice to be able to have your life back again. Being in their fifties and therefore in what some would call the prime of their lives, there was so much that they were still able to do, so many experiences that they had missed out on in life.

The two had met shortly after coming into their inheritances and had hit it off straight away. Thaddeus had been the only one of his nine siblings to be a Submissive and that had mean growing up with eight dominant male brothers who liked to play rough games and would drag him into them whether or not he wanted to or not. His mother had encouraged him to be whatever he wanted to be in life and Thaddeus had followed his dreams as best he could. Becoming a Master carpenter had taken a lot of work and dedication. He had worked whilst pregnant, ill and even when the children had been very young. It had been nice to have something that was entirely his own. Somewhere to escape to, when things got to be too much.

As always happens in situations like this, they had forgotten to invite one of Thaddeus' fourth or fifth cousins ad he had gotten all upset about them not inviting him to their wedding and it had taken ages to calm him down. With both of them having huge families it was inevitable that such a thing would happen. At least he hadn't forgotten to invite his great aunt Ermatrude otherwise there would have been hell on. She was one woman that you didn't cross, if you valued your life.

It had been a shock to everyone to see the human that had been brought before the council. No-one living could remember the last time a human had stood in the place that this stranger was.

As the man (Severus Snape) told them more and more about Harry and the way that he had been treated by the people in charge of his life, those who he should have been able to go to for help and who should have loved him with all their heart, Edwin could feel Thaddeus growing more and more angry. Fae around them had gotten out of their seats and were shouting various things at those assembled on the Dias, but his husband was red in the face, shaking with barely suppressed fury and his wings had only just fully extended themselves. Luckily Thaddeus had still had the presence of mind to turn in his seat, therefore ensuring that the delicate membrane wasn't damaged. Not that it wouldn't heal given enough time, but it was always a painful experience.

There were few things that could rile the normally peace loving and carefree man that he had been bonded to for so long. The talk of someone hurting a hatchling was one of them and this Albus Dumbledore had been left completely unchecked to harm Harry greatly. If the school's potions master and nurse hadn't noticed, what the old man had done could very well have resulted in magical exhaustion or death for the school boy. In any society, especially this one, such a thing was criminal and disgusting.

Having had several children together, some of which had, had/ still had disabilities of one form or another had ensured that they had learned to take the rough with the smooth, value what each of them could do (rather than concentrating on what they couldn't) and had a good knowledge of various first aid techniques. There had been times with their eldest son, when they had thought that was going to die and that was not a possibility that any parent wanted to think about happening to their baby. Neither of them had wanted to think about how they could have coped, if he hadn't have made it through that first night after he hatched.

Aelfhelm had hatched so much later than all his siblings in the clutch and they had thought that the egg was one of the unfertilised ones that a submissive sometimes lays. Such eggs had obviously been important during the early stages of their evolution in order to confuse predators and ensure the safety of the actually fertilised ones. Even now, many submissives found that they laid at least one of these eggs in their lifetime and that it was something that occurred more often when they were stressed or worried.

Queen Nirenia asked for a set of parents to look after this newly hatched child, to guide him in their ways and such. Neither of them were naive enough to think that this was the full entirety of what they would be asked to do. Thaddeus was pulling him forward as they made their way through the crowd; it seemed that they would be adding another child to their nest after all. It certainly wouldn't be easy, what with the fact that it seemed the boy was very independent, had been through some very traumatic events in his life so far and the fact that they would have to enter the wizarding world for the first time ever. It was sure to be a culture shock and the council probably had some sort of other role that they wanted the two of them to play.

* * *

><p>Albus Dumbledore was not a happy man. His stacked house of cards had come crashing down around him, but he was yet to see the entirety of the damage that had been wrought by one mistake. When placing the glamour on Harry, he had failed to read the small print below the spell, thus not noticing that in order for it to update each year to show that Harry was average, it remained at the same level from the point of incantation. And it was this that had led to everything that had happened.<p>

The aurors had escorted him from the building, after serving him the notice sent by the auror department. He had thought that as Kingsley was in the order, the man would have been easy to bend to his will, but it seemed that the influence of Scrimgeour was stronger in the man than he had first thought. The former headmaster had tried to talk his way out of it, charm, use legemency (A/n: SP?) and at one point use the imperious curse, but both men had slowly shepherded him towards the door.

In a desperate attempt to remove some of the more questionable items from his office and personal quarters, he had pleaded to be able to go back and collect some things to take with him as he left the school, but it seemed that they also had a warrant and the powers to seize his property in order to look through it for evidence.

This had made him furious, there were so many plans that he had yet to even begin to implement, tings had been going wrong ever since the death of Sirius Black last year. Harry had been meant to cling to him revere him as he slowly cut away all other contacts with any ale role models and father figures, see his headmaster as someone that could be trusted explicitly. The telling of the prophecy had probably happened just a little too close to the death. But there had been no need for the boy to blow up at him like that after all he only had the greater good in mind

These events were making it harder for him to carry out the various plans that he had in place for the wizarding world. Despite this though, he was sure that once he won the court case, as he was sure to, many of his contacts being on the jury, things would get back to normal. A sensible man planned for every eventuality and in his long life thus far, he had, had plans laid down for decades for exactly this eventuality.

The letter baring his suspension had been placed in his hand almost without him noticing it. The moment that it made contact with his skin, Dumbledore had felt a slight spinning sensation as the portkey activated giving him barely a second in which to swear profusely and try to drop it. Despite his efforts the sheet of paper remained glued to his hand. Two more seconds passed by and he had reached the predetermined destination and to say that he was not happy was putting it lightly.

* * *

><p>Ronald Weasley was enjoying the quietness of the school owlery. Until recently it hadn't been somewhere that he would have gone to on a regular basis, but now that he was receiving special gifts from his mother, that had changed. The presents weren't something that one could open at the breakfast table after all and Harry Potter wasn't here all the time, what with him currently residing in the hospital wing.<p>

As he entered the owlery, he stopped to glare at Hedwig, the snowy white owl of his former best friend, She sat on one of the lower perches, her head tucked under her wing, likely just having come in from her nights hunting. Harry valued her friendship very highly Ron knew. Often sneaking out of the dorm to go see her on a night, or letting her in through the window by his bed. It made sense that the filthy creature wanted to spend all its time with a mangy bird, rather than talk about how fit he found 'birds' and whether he thought that Milliscent Bulstrode was actually a girl or not.

Ron shook his head heading over to the window where the owl from his mother was likely to be entering through in a couple of minutes or so. Mr's Weasley had been horrified when he had told her of Harry's creature inheritance, 'it' was so abnormal that 'it' couldn't even be human. She had been even more distressed to find out the fact that he was a submissive. It was obvious now that her plans to marry her daughter off to the richest and most famous boy in the United Kingdom wasn't going to happen. The woman's racism towards creatures was only surpassed by her homophobia, something that she had tried to instil in all of her children. Thus driving away her three eldest children and creating a barrier between everyone that remained at home, except for Ron who soaked it up like a sponge.

Wasn't it bad enough that he had to share a dorm with Seamus and Dean, who had just announced that they were an item. Ron had of course spread the knowledge of this round the school as quickly as he could, hoping to find someone who found it as disgusting as he did, but had found no-one. Not even the strongest of the blood purists cared; after all such a union could produce children given the right potion regimen. He had wanted to humiliate them but had found that he had made them more popular than before.

As he stood pondering, the post owl flapped its way slowly towards him. Obviously his mother hadn't used their family owl, nor Pig who were both very easily recognised but one that she had rented the use of, from the village. In its talons, the parcel was gripped tightly, swinging from side to side by the piece of rope that bound it together.

Wrapped in a plain standard and boring brown paper was the key to the success of his plans. The moment the owl landed, the youngest child of the Weasley family tore his way through the paper like a mad man. Hooting in indignation the owl then flew on up into the room proper and found itself a perch.

Inside the box were thirty small glass tubes containing a bright pink liquid, which had the consistency of bubble bath, but were nowhere near as safe.


	33. Chapter 33

_A/n: I'm really excited, i have my first non english review! It made me take a proper look at the story stats for this story and i'm amazed at how many people are reading from other countries._

_This English girl would like to say thank you to everyone for reading especiall those for whom English isn't thier 1st language. I couldn't imagine trying to make my way through a German fic, despite doing a bit of the language in school. So you all get e-hugs._

_There's people reading this story from the following places; The US, UK, Canada, Australia, France, Germany, Mexico, Spain, Italy, the Czech Revar, Sweden, Phillipines, Finland, New Zealand, Poland. Brazil, Denmark, Switzerland, Puerto Rico, the Netherlands, Rep. Ireland, India, Pakistan, Barbados, Portugal, Malaysia, Belgium, Hungary, Lativia, Indonesia, Lithuania, Singapore, Japan, Rep. Korea, Norway, Romania, Israel, Russian Fed., Kuwait, Chile, Thailand, Slovenia, Kenya, South Africa, Luxembourg, Nicaragua, Austria, Estonia, Dominican Revar, Slovakia, Antigua and Barbuda, Nepal, Mongolia, Qatar, Myanmar, Ghana, Monaco, Honduras, The United Arab Emirates, Turkey, Taiwan, Bangladesh, Nigeria, Ukraine._

_The last says satellite, which makes me want to believe that the moon is reading the story *fail*_

_That's one big list! And now on with the chapter you've all been waiting for_.

**Chapter 33**

The ministry was in uproar. Almost every department from the DMLE to the archivists could be found running around like headless chickens. It wasn't everyday that a previously thought to be extinct race knocked on your door, so to speak, and asked to meet with the department which dealt with magical creatures.

One of the Atrium's secretaries had fainted and had to be brought round with smelling salts, when the delegation from Britain's only Faerie colony announced their visit to her. She had always been known as someone who over reacted. That had been embarrassing for the ministry, though not as embarrassing as the fact that all the protocol for such a visit had long been abandoned, what with Fudge's hard line on all creatures. It had been many years since any form of creature delegation had addressed the wizarding world, they usually preferred to do things on their own turf and people didn't blame them. At least there they knew what was going on and could follow their own rules.

Rhiannon the fiery Scottish lady that managed the help desk at the front of the atrium on the ground floor, had the situation in hand. Although she was as shocked as anyone, at the sudden appearance of these people, she was well trained in dealing with even the trickiest of situations and had managed to remain calm. Years dealing with Death Eaters, angry ministry workers and the general public had shaped her into someone you didn't cross unless you could help it. Someone had once said that they would rather face a Hungarian Horntail, naked as the day they were born armed with nothing but a wooden spoon rather than face her when she was angry.

"Ladies and Gentlemen, if you would please take the seats provided, someone will be down to escort you to the correct department in a few moments." Rhiannon had used her best 'telephone voice' as her mother would have said, and steered the group over to the waiting area. During this time, she took the opportunity to look at them a little more closely than before.

The group consisted of mainly male Faerie, but they were interspersed with the odd female. There also seemed to be a good representation of people of various different ages. Some of the councillors looked like they had barely left school., but then they were also rumoured to have slightly longer life spans than wizard kind. So she didn't know what to think about them.

As they seated themselves she asked the civil, "Is there anything that I can get you?" To which they replied no and she saw that this was her cue to leave them alone.

The clicking of her court shoes on the highly polished green floor tiles seemed deafening as she made her way over to the desk once again to send an urgent inter-departmental notice to Nathaniel Powell over in the Creature liason office. He needed to be warned of what was coming.

* * *

><p>Nigel the chief archivist was currently rummaging through an ancient abandoned store room, in one of his hands was the scroll he had found which contained the contents of every one of their storerooms. Apparently in here somewhere was the archaic treaty that wizard kind had signed with the Fae at the time of the Roman invasion. Accompanying it, there should be a ledger written in the runic language of their ancestors, a scroll that told how to behave around and talk to a Fae. This would be vital in ensuring that whatever the reason that they were here, it wouldn't end in bloodshed without a perfectly good reason.<p>

Nathaniel Powell over in creature liaison, had sent him an urgent message stating that he had, a thought to be extinct race sitting in the foyer of the ministry of magic, waiting for him to meet with them and he had no idea what to do. How the man had gotten his job, Nigel had no idea. It was probably something to do with the fact that the last man to hold his position had been his best friend. Even without Fudge in 'charge' there was still a great deal of corruption within the government, just as there was with in any in the modern world. He wasn't saying the man didn't do a good job, in fact he was probably the best they had ever had in that position, he just panicked a lot.

Nigel gently shifted through the aging parchment sheaves and vellum manuscripts that had sat in this room for over three hundred years without seeing the light of day. As such they were not as yellowed as one would expect them to be without the sun's destructive rays or the greasy fingertips of politicians pawing at them with little to no respect, many were delicate but still pristine. The papers that he was looking for had been gilded, long after they had been written as a mark of how close the two species had been. So much had changed since then.

The soft glow coming from the open door, bathed the insides of the room in a gentle yellow light. From floor to ceiling papers lay stacked haphazardly in towering piles that looked as if they would fall upon him at any moment. A table, made of what seemed to be various pieces of driftwood fashioned together in some way, was stood in the centre of the small space. Around it there was barely room for Nigel to squeeze past without dislodging the papers all around him. Upon it lay several scrolls, books and further papers.

As he moved closer to it, the tell tale glimmer of gold shimmered before his eyes. He had found them at last. It was a miracle that his predecessors had kept such scrupulous lists of the things housed within their care otherwise the entire Ministry might have been searching for months through all the libraries they had within the building.

Nigel took a deep breath in, in order to squeeze between the table and the papers. Middle age wasn't doing anything for him. No doubt when he handed them over, he would receive no thanks. Such was the lot of an archivist.

* * *

><p>Adeline was bored out of her mind, she had been dragged along to the Ministry of Magic by her father who had also been chosen to be part of the lower council. She had certainly not wanted to leave her comfy bed this morning, but the smell of bread toasting had awoken her . Not too long afterward her Papa had dragged of her covers, that man was evil. Taking away her covers was one of very few ways in which it was actually possible to wake her up, the other being putting a freezing cold flannel over her face. It was effective, but certainly didn't put her on good terms with whoever did it.<p>

Being chosen to do this was an honour for the colony and as she had only just had her inheritance four months ago, she was the youngest member. The role was a huge responsibility and one that she was taking as seriously as she could despite her young age.

The wizarding world was a very strange place to be in. During school she had learned a lot about the people that had driven hers into exile, but it seemed that their culture had progressed very little since the split between them. It had stagnated, due to the various intolerances that the elite had towards members of their own society. Severus Snape had explained to them the major events of the past fifty or sixty years, including the rise of Voldermort and the persecution of non 'clean' purebloods. Such a thing was despicable and had reminded many of the atrocities of the past.

Despite their exile from the wizarding world, the colony had kept in touch with the muggle world, not wanting to be completely cut off from the rest of the world. Many of the innovations of the past two centuries had been added to their culture. Such things as washing machines and fridges were now very popular as it was almost impossible to get the same quality of result by magic. It was easy to cast a cooling charm of course, but it had to be monitored regularly, to ensure it didn't wear off.

Queen Nirenia had wanted to come on this official meeting, but the high council had deemed it to be unsafe. Even though they al believed Severus' word that the ministry had reformed, they couldn't put her at any unnecessary risk. There was no telling how anyone would react and apparently there were still a great many of this Voldermort's supporters still out there.

* * *

><p>Nathaniel Powell was extremely grateful when the head archivist found the documents that he has quickly requested in a panic. There was no way that he was going to meet with this delegation without first learning of the protocol that he should follow. Insulting people was not in his business after all.<p>

The fact that so many faeries had turned up, was making him sweat profusely as he hurriedly read through the information written on the documents in front of him. The balding man had little time in which to get up to speed before he would have to go down and escort them back up to the special meeting room, that he used for large delegations.

It seemed that there wasn't much that would be required, unlike in meetings with werewolves and veela, this seemed like it would be pretty easy if he was honest with hi self. One of the major things was not to be critical of their offspring, nor the way in which they raised them and to be open minded about the relationships that were between people.

Closing the large tome, he brushed himself down, straightening his green tie and pulling up the grey trousers that his belt just didn't seem to be able to keep up. Being a muggle born wizard meant that even after being through Hogwarts, he found it very hard to feel comfortable in robes. Since he basically ran this department on his own, with a small group of other muggleborns, it meant that he could wear what he felt comfortable in. After all most of the pureblood elite wouldn't want to work in such a 'dirty' area of the ministry and everyone else wanted to be famous rather than to do a good job. Nathaniel had always found other cultures interesting and he was doing what little he could to remove the stigma that still seemed to permeate the wizarding world in regards to having creature blood despite the amount of families that carried it in some form or another.

:**A/n** **Sorry for the long wait, i've just started ****uni and the course i'm on is really intense. Hence the big gap between updates, but i'm back on track with my writing and you'll get the next instalment within a week. :) **


	34. Chapter 34

**A/n: Hehehe long time no see. I have nothing to say for myself other than i've been really ill lately and my uni course is brutal. So to make up for this long wait here is a much longer chapter than before, with a bit of fluff toward the end. Hope that you enjoy it.**

Chapter 34

"There you go Mr Potter." Madame Pomfrey stated as she handed over the few things that he had managed to accumulate over the past couple of days. He was pleased beyond belief to notice that his wand was one of them. Harry hadn't seen it since he had collapsed in that corridor and once he was fully conscious of what was going on, he had been worried that he had lost it or that someone had taken it.

Apparently, he had Professor Snape to thank for finding and returning the holly wand to him. The man had changed significantly since the fall of Voldermort at the end of last year. Sure he was still cranky and bad tempered with somewhat of morbid sense of humour but he was nowhere near as vindictive as before. Neville had told him during one of the many visits that his friends had made to see him in the hospital wing that, the man had even taken to helping him during potions. Something that had apparently shocked Malfoy so much that he had dropped a tablespoon of ground Gladiolus petals into his cough syrup and it had exploded covering half the class in short curly blue hair wherever it had touched them.

At last he was finally going to get out of this place being cooped up in bed for such a long period of time was very boring and something that he seemed to spend a lot of his time doing. Despite this joy he felt of finally getting his life back on track there was still a deeply lodged feeling of panic that he couldn't control. He wasn't human anymore! Sure his friends had told Harry that pretty much everyone was ok with his having suddenly turned into a mythical creature but that didn't that mean that the bullying and social isolation wouldn't get worse. By now he had learned to expect the worst of people, but always to hope for the best. Dumbledore's recent betrayal had pretty much been the final nail in the coffin for that part of him. Maybe one day it could be rekindled but it was going to take a lot of trust in someone for that to happen.

People especially adults found it hard to understand (and sometimes even to believe) how hard it was to go day to day with people calling you names, making jokes about your appearance, questioning your gender/sexuality and just generally being mean. It slowly grinded you down over time and if you weren't lucky to have good friends then it meant that you had no support.

Madame Pomfrey had ensured that he knew what was expected from him, by both Professor Snape and herself. No over exerting himself (he was banned from the Quidditch team until he put at least a stone back on and was able to maintain it). Harry had to take several nutritional potions and continue on the eating programme that Neville and him had created over the years. If he felt hungry he was to eat, no matter what the time was, she had given him a special pass that allowed him to call for a house elf to bring him something. The school nurse had made it clear to him if she thought that he had so much as thought of not following these stipulations that she would have him back here before he could so much as blink and that she would tie him down if she had to.

Once he had everything gathered up, he was on his way out of there as fast as his legs could take him, back into the heaving jungle that was school life.

* * *

><p>Nathaniel Powell rushed down to the lifts as fast as he could, tucking a small manila folder beneath his arm. He had kept them waiting for long enough as it was, without lengthening their wait anymore than necessary. Black leather shoes squeaked as he finally made it to the central landing, where the lifts could be accessed. Here the stone floor which had previously been a bold red colour, bordered with sparkling white quartz, morphed gradually into a considerably more complex pattern. Green, blue and gilded tiles added to the red and white, from this a mosaic had been created depicting several magical creatures. Houseplants stood in glazed pots, the ministry was obviously trying to make the place look a little more friendly than it had before.<p>

During Fudge's time as Minister the place had been made of a grey black polished granite that made everything dark and depressing.

Nathaniel squeezed into the first lift available and was promptly squashed against the left wall, between Roger Matthews the assistant departmental head of the goblin liaison service and a burly auror, with which he was having to endure an entirely inappropriate level of bodily contact. The man fortunately looked just as uncomfortable as he did, their eyes met briefly before darting away once more. For a moment he thought that he recognised him from somewhere, but as quickly as the thought arrived, it left once again.

It seemed at times that the Fates loved playing with his life.

* * *

><p>"The Queen makes her apologies, for being unable to attend this meeting." The head councillor stated, the moment that they had entered the conference room and sat down. The room was pleasantly warm and was painted with a soft sky blue coloured paint and a number of statues were situated around. The table which they were sat a t was made out of solid oak and had a large unidentifiable stain in one of the corners. "You have to understand of course that, that was a risk which we were unwilling to take." The man was middle aged, grey hairs starting to make their presence known and recently bereaved, thus making him someone who wasn't in the least bit interested in idle chit chat. They had come here primarily for one reason, getting custody of the boy Harry Potter.<p>

"Yes, ties between our two people have been bad throughout the past. If, you would permit me to ask a question High Councillor?" Nathaniel asked cautiously, beads of sweat making their way down his forehead; this job was most certainly not good for his heart. Highly stressed wasn't the word for it.

"You may, though there is no surety that we will answer it." William Dranton, former head of the weavers guild stated, his blonde hair swishing wildly to the side, hand on his hip and a meticulously groomed eyebrow raised in question. He hadn't particularly wanted to be part of this new delegation, as it meant giving up a job that he loved and had real passion for, but if it meant that the safety of a child was ensured then he would do it. The news that he had been voted into this position had been like a bolt out of the blue.

He had been gifted with a daughter six months before and the time he had been pregnant with her, used his body to incubate her egg and watched her hatch had been beautiful. The bond between him and he, between her other father and her and the bond between him and his husband was so strong and filled with love. Every day it became just that little bit stronger.

From the moment that he knew that he was pregnant, he had made a vow to protect her, the thought of her going through what harry had terrified him. Not only had the boy been betrayed and neglected, a large part of his heart was saying that they had yet to hear the full story.

"What is the purpose of this meeting?" Here, Nathaniel opened the manila folder and sat with a trusty ballpoint pen poised in order to take notes. Dictating quills were very unreliable at the best of times and their 'handwriting' was often difficult to decipher. The tried and tested method would have to do until he worked out how to use a Dictaphone properly without it blowing up because of the magic within the building.

"Well there are two reasons." Adaline piped up, brushing a lock of hair out of her face, this was what she had been tasked with saying by her peers. "Firstly we are here to re-establish contact with the wizarding world and are formally declaring the opening of the Faerie creature council, known among our kind as the lower council and we are invoking our right to exercise its full powers."

Nathaniel stopped his writing in shock, he had never even thought that this was a possibility, though he should have, what with the amount of people that had come in this delegation and the fact that they were making themselves known once ore after so long in self imposed exile.

The paperwork for this was going to be terrible and if the pressure hadn't been on before it most certainly would be now. If things went wrong not only would he be waving bye bye to his job, it most certainly would become an international incident and make the United Kingdom look incompetent on the world's stage. Biting back the urge to begin slamming his forehead off the table, heart beating loudly in his ears, he made a noise that he had intended to sound like an affirmation of the fact that he had heard what was said, but in fact it came off more as a panicked squeal. Luckily no one seemed to hear it, or at least if they did, they chose to ignore it.

"Secondly it has come to our attention that a student at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry has come into a Faerie inheritance and as his family are unwilling and unable to care for him we formally request guardianship."

"This student being?"

"Harry Potter."

* * *

><p>The group met in an abandoned classroom on the sixth floor, a place they had met in many a time before. Despite this, it had been sometime since they had use it, Peeves had taken to throwing inkpots around in here when he was bored and so it had become a no go zone until he moved on to somewhere else.<p>

Luna was wearing a hat that seemed to be made out of iceberg lettuce, and she was sitting at one of the desks, poking holes through various vegetables and stringing them together.

"Luna?" Harry called softly, trying to get her attention, but not startle her as she was using her potions knife to make the holes. The last thing that anyone wanted was someone else in the hospital wing after all Harry had only just gotten out of there a couple of hours ago.

She turned in her seat, holding a carrot in one hand and the knife in the other. "What are you doing?"

"Making a dress." The only female member of the group stated, with no further comment as if this was a perfectly normal thing to do. This was Luna though and Harry had seen her doing things that were much weirder and often more dangerous, so he sat next to her and began threading vegetables that already had holes in them onto the string in the order she had laid them out in. At least then he would have something to do with himself.

"Someone seems to be channelling Lady Gaga at the moment." Dean stated dragging Seamus behind him, left hand tightly clutching at his boyfriends right. They both slumped into the seats opposite looking bone weary and began snogging like there was no tomorrow.

"Oy that's not something that i want to see!" Fred shouted from the doorway, covering his twin's eyes with his hand. "Spare yourself the sight George!" Seamus blushed and broke away, leaving Dean panting for his breath. They had after all been in a full on lip lock of epic proportions.

"Yeah we don't want to see our brothers playing tonsil tennis thank you very much." George added, elbowing his twin in the ribs and breaking out from his hold. The two of them flounced into the room and sat at a bench at the far end of the table. It was a bit rickety, but only rocked scarily when they both leaned to the left. The glue holding the wooden joints together had obviously worn away, meaning that they could now move around.

Neville opened the door, ten minutes later to find Luna wearing a necklace made out of carrots and Dean, Seamus and Harry teaching the twins to sing Poker face by Lady Gaga.

Luna was the first to notice him and came running over laughing, pointing to her necklace, now that she was closer, he could see the golden hue to it. Someone had obviously done a clever bit of transfiguration.

"Look Neville I'm wearing a twenty four carrot gold necklace. Isn't that funny do you get it? Carrot not carat, they sound the same but they mean different things." She stated, unable to hold back her giggling at times, and it disrupted her speech, making it somewhat hard to understand. After a few seconds though he managed to decipher what she was trying to say and smiled, drawing her to hi and hugging her tightly.

"Don't you ever change." He whispered into her ear and she laughed, twirling away into the room again. Now that he was back within sight of Harry, he could smell that scent once more, it was beginning to drive him mad. Not only did Harry himself smell of it, but so did all his belongings and many of the rooms throughout the castle. This meant that he could barely get anywhere without catching a whiff of it.

Harry was laughing, something that they were all trying to get him to do more often and he was back with his family what more could he ask for?


	35. Chapter 35

**A/n HI everyone here's another chapter for you. We're cracking on with the plot a little more here. I hope that you like it. :)**

Chapter 35

The meeting had been going quite well in Nathaniel's opinion when suddenly the issue of a child at Hogwarts having come into a Faerie inheritance was brought up. From his perspective it had come out of the blue. It was only right that as a species they would want to protect this individual, but the fact that he had not been informed of the situation spoke volumes. Other ministry departments often overlooked or underestimated the support and services that they could provide people with.

He was then shocked even further by the fact that this child was one Harry Potter. Never in all his days could he have believed that this was the situation that he would walk into today when he came to the office. Not only was a thought extinct race sitting in his meeting/conference room, they were talking about coming back into the open once more and something had happened that hadn't in centuries. At least he thought that it was centuries, after all people were bound to have reported such a thing as a child going through that type of inheritance before.

Why the school hadn't informed the department, as they usually did was beyond him. In cases where guardians were unable to, or unwilling to get in contact with the right people, the school's general method of finding them a support base was to contact wizarding child services, then this department, so that they could be sign posted to the relevant creature council. This process was sometimes interrupted in the middle by a visit to the aurors, in cases of abuse and neglect though that was very rare. Nathaniel was desperately hoping that he had merely been overlooked, something that happened often, rather than the case being one in which the aurors were involved. No-one deserved to be treated in such a manner.

Something like that would explain the facial expressions, body language and the way that they were diving into the subject straight away. In the acient book that he had managed to purouse quickly before meeting with them, one of the strongest themes about their society seemed to be that of safeguarding their children.

There could also be the fact that Dumbledore had just been suspended from his post at the school, the reasons for this had yet to trickle down the interdepartmental gossip chain, but he was sure that they had finally been able to get him for something pretty serious. Rufus Scrimgeour had after all been baying for the man's blood for decades.

Harry Potter was a child who had both lost and achieved many things in his comparatively short life span, thus far, and Nathaniel thought that it was about time the boy got something good in his life.

Getting over his shock as quickly and as professionally as he was able to, he explained how little he was aware of the details involved in this situation.

"I assure you though that the Creature Liaison service will be willing to work both with you and Wizarding Child Services in order to ascertain the circumstances of the child involved and that we will do everything in our power to ensure his safety." It was a statement that sounded impressive, but also promised very little. Much like anything in politics.

If Harry was in fact a Faerie he would do his level best to get the guardianship transferred from the current adult to a suitable member of his own race. From the rumour mill he had been semi-conscious of the fact that the boy wasn't happy with whoever he was currently living with. But it also meant that he wasn't promising any grand feats of daring do, after all the safety and health of one Harry Potter was of the utmost of importance.

Mr Powell would have to make an appointment to meet with Amelia Bones at some point in the next couple of days. She was a busy woman, but it would have to be done in order to get the ball rolling. The sooner that this could be sorted out the better it was for everyone involved.

It wasn't long after that that the meeting wound to a close. Various other topics were included such as the fact that they wanted to send a particular set of parents to the school to spend time with Harry before the boy made a choice about them. They pencilled in several dates, into their respective diaries, in which they would meet in order to get the Faerie Creature Council set up once more.

Now Nathaniel just had to sort this big mess out and help them fight a possible legal fight with a guardian that didn't seem to be particularly caring of Harry.

* * *

><p>Albus Dumbledore was sat at the window of his small house on the south coast in the living room to be exact. Brighton had always been a place where he had felt welcome and safe. The house had been one of the first things that he had bought when his sister had died, wanting to be as far from the memories of that summer as possible.<p>

After extensive searching of his house, the aurors had seized items both muggle and magical from him as well as practically all of the papers in his study. The information had been something that he had refused to part with easily and that was the reason his hands were now sporting a pair of magic dampening bracelets that were keyed into a ward around the house. There was no way that he would be able to leave the house wearing them, even if it weren't for the twenty four hour guard that he was subjected to.

Every second that passed made him more and more angry. Who were they to imprison him, at all, never mind in his own house? Things it seemed were only going from bad to worse, his firm grasp on the wizarding world loosening day by day.

There had been a tie when he would have been able to twinkle his eyes, do a small bit of memory modification and the whole situation would have been over and done with. But it seemed that Rufus had made occlumency a part of the standard training amongst his staff.

His hands were magically tied at the moment, but he would find a way of getting under their guard. Eventually someone would fall for his doddery old Grandpa facade. One he had cultivated with extreme care over the past fifty years. It had meant that he had been able to get away with a number of things that an able bodied man would never have been able to. Looking like a kindly if somewhat eccentric Grandfather also had the merit of people telling you things that they probably shouldn't.

He could hear the boots of the aurors outside the front room squeak as he shifted his weight from one foot to the other and it added to his mounting sense of being trapped.

Albus' head was filled with plans, many of them prepared many years ago. It seemed that he would have to fall back to one of the oldest in his collection. One he and Gellert had made that bright summer all those years ago, before everything had fallen apart.

It was time to put into action plan 2.12 also known as Operation Dung beetle and trust his dark night, in order to pull this off.

* * *

><p>Breakfast was a busy affair, as it usually was within the walls of the magical school. Ron was yet to see the 'abnormality' as he had taken to calling his former friend. Though Neville, Dean and Seamus seemed much happier than they had recently.<p>

It was unfortunate as Ron had hoped that the waste of space had finally died. Dumbledore had told him exactly what Harry was. A creature, the 'boy' wasn't even human and that was something that he had been brought up to believe was disgusting, not only that but 'he' wasn't even properly a 'he' anymore. His mind wasn't capable of understanding what was going on.

The small group of people who were against creatures, found themselves increasingly isolated within the school. It seemed that there were a great deal more people with creature blood running through their veins than had first been thought. In fact those with a purely human genetic background were very rare. Even the blood purist families often had a drop or two of something within them.

In the beginning it had been fun to bully the students that were going through their inheritances, but Ronald had quickly realised that doing so wasn't particularly in his best interests. A girl from Hufflepuff had beat hi round the head in Herbology because he'd made fun of her girlfriend and he still had the bruises to show for it.

Despite his bravado, at the end of the day, Ron Weasley was a coward. The few times that he had managed to be brave were often fuelled by his lust for money. Something that Dumbledore had provided him plenty of.

Hermione was one of the very few people that still talked to him. Considering that they were boyfriend and girlfriend and love often made people wear rose tinted glasses, this was to be expected. Though she seemed to be pulling away from him more and more lately, which was something that he just couldn't have happen.

His mother had sent him the top up potions (a stronger dose this time) that he needed, now it was just a matter of getting them in her food, without her noticing...

**A/n: A bit shorter that usual I know, but I just didn't know what else to do with it. **


	36. Chapter 36

**An. Yes it has been a horrifically long time since i last updated. I apologise profusely, but at the moment i'm doing a work placement 9-5 (meaning i have to leave the house at 7 to get there on time) do two 4000 word essays, revise for 2 exams and research various things to do with mental illness...as well as this and a plethora of other stuff. I wont abandon it ever you have a solemn promise on that but things are really tough for me right now. **

On with the story.

Chapter 36

The next staff meeting was as hectic as usual but there were a number of noticeable differences. For one Albus Dumbledore was conspicuous by his absence, Minerva sitting in his preferred seat was one another. As well as this many of the staff members weren't shouting to get their concerns recognised like they had been a month ago. The files of all of the students were being addressed keeping all the staff up to date with the various issues within the school. Dumbledore had, had a habit of trying to brush things under the carpet. That hadn't meant that they hadn't addressed those issues. It had meant they had to use different routes with less weight behind them.

Poppy had her contacts within St Mungos hospital, with which she could usually liaise with if the headmaster had blocked her attempts of getting a student sufficient health care. In so cases this hadn't been possible due to various oaths he had made her swear over the years and so she had gone straight to their family. In Harry's case neither of these had been possible as she hadn't been able to get any mail to them.

Minerva knew a lot of the people in the Auror office due to her friendship with Alastor Moody. He was a man who had always taken her concerns seriously regarding Albus. He most certainly wasn't the type of man who would trust anyone blindly and Dumbledore certainly had a large number of foibles. Such contacts had been invaluable in getting children emancipated, moved out of inappropriate home environments, passing on dark magical items found in the school etc.

"I would like to raise the issue of Hermione Granger's change in personality." Filius piped, drawing the attention of the rest of the room. "Recently she has become rather mean spirited and bigoted. I think it's something that we should monitor, due to its sudden onset."

"Filius I agree with you, it is most unlike her. I thought that maybe it was to do with her dating Ronald Weasley, who seems to be particularly possessive of her." Severus added, by now the entirety of the staff was looking concerned. As if there wasn't enough going on here at the moment without something so suspicious going on.

"I'll ask her to come in for a check up on Monday and do some in depth scans." Poppy stated, brushing a crumb from her ginger newt off of her apron.

"That is a good idea, she might open up if she's on her own." Aurora Sinistra called from her place beside the muggle studies teacher.

* * *

><p>The first lesson that Harry had to attend was Potions, first thing on a Monday. Breakfast that morning hadn't been as bad as it had yesterday. Sunday was the day that he had been released from the hospital and as news about his release from the hospital wing had slowly filtered through the school, Harry had noticed the level of staring increase. A tiny little first year, who he was unable to recall the name of had run up to him as soon as he entered the great hall for breakfast, wrapping her arms around him tightly and had then promptly burst into tears.<p>

He had stood there in shock for a few moments before his caring instinct took over. As best as he could, he bent down, taking her into his lap and carding his fingers through her curly brown hair. Given the chance to get a proper look at her, he was able to see that it was the same little girl that he had helped find her way back to the Slytherin dorms at the beginning of the year. It had been the first night in school after the summer holidays and he had felt the need for a late night wander around the castle, having spent the past two hours tossing and turning in his bed.

Under the cloak, and with the map clutched protectively in his left hand, he had crept down to the fifth floor Harry had intended to go to the kitchens to see Dobby, but had been surprised upon finding her standing in the middle of the corridor crying. He had been so caught up in ensuring that the teachers, Filch and Mrs Norris where nowhere to be seen that he had completely forgotten about making sure that there wasn't anyone else out there.

Luckily his footfalls were soft, having learned over the many years that he had spent at his aunt and uncles house how to get around without waking them up. She hadn't noticed him and so he had backed off back round the corner of the corridor, his heart beating a tattoo loudly in his chest. It wouldn't be right t leave her there on her own like that. After all she looked to be a firstie who had lost her way, through the maze that was also known as a school.

It had only taken a few moments for him to divest himself of the cloak, and stow the map in his back pocket, before he came back round the corner determined to help her. Seamus would say that it was his savng people thing going off once again and in a way he had to agree with him.

Taking her back had taken all of half an hour but ever since then she had become rather fond of him. In a way she reminded him of Luna. Hannah Shout was her name; it had come to him in a flash as he looked back down at her. Being so long in the Hospital wing had left hi rather detached from the rest of the world and the revelations that had taken place had left him wallowing in self pity. In the midst f all hat he hadn't really had the chance to think about how people would react, beyond what his mind had thought the worst scenarios could be.

When he finally made it to the Gryffindor table Neville and Dean had made sure that there was a space in-between them so that he wouldn't be stuck next t one of the overly inquisitive house members. Harry shivered slightly the hall was s mc colder than the infirmary what with it being such a large room and so close to the main entrance. People seemed to have grown bored of staring at him by now, as they had returned to their meals, though the occasional person was looking over at him every now and then in a way that was completely obvious.

Ronald Weasley was seated about ten or twelve seats away from them and was eating with his usual lack of manners or skill, glaring at him whenever he paused to wipe the bacon grease from his face.

The knot of anxiety within his stomach clenched ever tighter and he didn't think that he cold stomach anything this morning. Though it was painfully obvious that he was going to have to that didn't mean that he wanted to. Neville, Snape and Madame Pomfrey weren't going to let him get away with skipping meals. Lowering his left hand to his stomach and massaging it gently in a hope to release the cramping feeling there, he began to assemble some food together. Fruit was something that he enjoyed, but was also something that Neville would keep an eye on the amount that he was eating. There were plenty of vitamins and minerals but few calories. For that component of his diet he settled on a bowl of 'Shreddie' like cereal.

"Potions this morning ey, Harry!" Seamus exclaimed happily buttering some granary toast in a rather slapdash manner.

"Don't remind me." Harry replied, forcing down the cocktail of drugs that he was now required to take before every meal.

**An. I hope that you liked the new chapter, as slow moving as this story is... PM me if you want to know more about what's going on in my life XD **


	37. Chapter 37

**An/ Long time no see eh? Well i'm back and here is a new chapter for you all. I've not been very well lately. Relapsing is a bitch, but i'm here now. Enough with the excuses and on with the story**-

Chapter 37

Potter custody battle won by creatures

The Daily Prophet has been told by a reliable source that the 'Boy-who-lived' has been through a magical creature inheritance a few weeks ago. This event happened in Hogwarts School in an unknown location, when Harry disappeared for over a week, returning without so much as an explanation for this from the staff. Apparently Mr Potter now appears to be very underweight and is acting morose. Which is, according to our source, very unlike the young man that they usually know. A loud rather bragging boy, willing to spread lies about he-who-must-not-be-named. Recently a number of aurors and a mental health specialist healer have been seen entering the school and as the school has refused to comment on these occurrences, this reporter has to ask...What is it that the so called 'chosen one' has become. After the claims of Mr Potter having killed Voldermort last year, when we all know that he was killed over fifteen years ago, the mental state of the boy should be brought into question. Last year he was adamant that you-know-who had returned, now e says that he has killed him a second time within a ministry building.

We attempted to get the ministers opinion on the matter, but he told us that ' I refuse to give a statement to you over any ministry business especially this case as it is a matter of national security and I know full well that you will twist whatever I say!'

The daily prophet is of course offended by this statement as it is well known that we are the most popular newspaper in the British Isles, constantly out printing little rags like the Quibbler. The minister refused to answer a simple question asked to him about an apparent lie. His incompetence since gaining office seems to know no bounds. We of course warned of this during the election campaign. (For more on the failings of this new leftist government and their mud blood leader see page 7)

I see this as nothing more than a publicity stunt, albeit a botched one. There is much that goes on behind the walls of the school and with Dumbledore being brought up before the Wizengamot in a few weeks time; it's hard to know whether out children are safe there.

Exclusive access to the arrest warrant show that Dumbledore was Harry's magical guardian and that he is being charged with a number of crimes, (for a full list see p4)the most disturbing being binding the magic of Harry Potter. Whether or not this is true shall of course be found out by the court, but in the mean time custody of the boy has been given to an unknown couple, who are reputedly of the same magical creature as harry. The auror's are involved with the case still, and this brings up the fact that it is likely the boy is a serious danger to his class mates. This reporter advises parents to send letters to the school demanding that he is removed for the safety of your own children.

A member of his own house, who wishes to remain anonymous, spoke to us in a one of interview last Hogsmead weekend. He stated that 'Everyone is scared of Harry.' And that 'he has a very bad temper and no-one wants to be on the wrong side of him'.

Written by Noah Wright

Edwin and Thaddeus could almost jump for joy the lower council had demanded full custody rights of one Harry James Potter and the ministry of magic had granted it. Now it was just a matter of looking ##through the notes held on him, before heading over there. Doing such would mean that they had a fuller picture of who the boy was and what was going on. Sure Severus Snape had told them in great detail what had been going on recently, but there was nothing at all said about how he had been doing in school academically, which was something that could be an indicator of any problems. For example low grades could show that he was struggling with the work he was being set. If his grades had been at a steady level then suddenly dropped that could be a major warning sign of something happening. They had also been given access to his medical records.

Edwin had cried, before he had even gotten past what would have constituted the first page. Harry had had developed hypothermia after being left on the doorstep the night after his parents had been murdered. It was one of the many periods during his life that he had been put at undue risk and had been failed by the adults around him. It had taken the two of them a couple of hours to get through the shear amount of injuries that their new baby had had in his life and it had left them with very negative impressions of Harry's previous guardians. Both were happy to see the care plan that had been created by the school nurse, Severus and one Iain Powell. It was something that not only addressed the boy's physical needs but also his mental health needs also. After having a lot happen to him, not only was the neglect disturbing but the fact that he had witnessed the murder of another student and that the headmaster and had refused to get him any counselling was more so in their eyes mainly because he had then sent the boy back to a home where he knew he was being abused. Harry had been failed time and time again by people in charge and that wasn't something that was acceptable.

There was no doubt in their minds that Harry would at the very least have an issue with them. The boy was sixteen had found out a lot of bad things about the main players in his life and had in his eyes suddenly changed species never mind the fact that two people that he had never met before were suddenly going to thrust themselves upon him as guardians. They were going to have to be very careful with how they approached the situation otherwise a disaster could very well occur from which there would be no going back.

Right now they were packing up things that would be taken to the school their new child was attending. Hogwarts was a boarding school and the new headmistress had kindly provided them with somewhere to stay on campus. This was incredibly useful as it meant that they could stay within close proximity of Harry and therefore be able to build a bond with him much faster than they would be able to if there only contact had been through occasional visits and letters. Being closer also meant that Harry could come to them at any time that he needed them and that they would be on site to advise the teachers. Harry was going to need a great deal of support from a variety of people in order to come to terms with the things that had happened and that would happen. There was so much that they would be able to teach him about the people that he came from.

It was just a matter of getting him to trust and like them and at the moment that looked like an insurmountable quest.


	38. Chapter 38

**A/n: Another chapter for you all. I've just realised that the story has had over 100,000 hits so i'm really happy at the moment. I hope that you enjoy the chapter. **

Chapter 38

Potions was hard on Harry. To begin with there was the fact that he was once again back in the school populous and was expecting the taunting that he and his friends went through to get ratcheted up a few more notches but so far it seemed to have quietened down . Of course there had been see extreme negative reactions but others had started standing up to them for him. Which he enjoyed immensely it wasn't that he was unable to respond to them and give as good back as he got. The vast majority of the school had afterall been on the end of his wand at some point during the past few years. He couldn't stand by and watch them torment people. After all Luna said that he had a saving people thing. It seemed to be mostly coming fro a small group within the school that as far as he could tell were muggleborns, the notable exception being Ron. There was also the fact that this would be the first time he had seen Snape since being let out of the Infirmary and e didn't know how that was going to end up. So much had changed between the that he didn't feel comfortable at the thought of it returning to the way that it was before, but he was unsure how he wanted it to be now If Snape suddenly started being friendly, he didn't know what he would do. The first and most likely thing would be to panic and think that he was an imposter. Polyjuice was after all not all that difficult for an adult wizard to make and the death eaters that were left weren't above the imperious curse.

When they entered the dungeon, Snape was already there sitting at the long oaken desk, hands clasped together.

"I want you all to stand at the back of the class in alphabetic order." A few eyebrows were raised at this, though mostly by the Slytherins, Snape merely stared them down. "I am sick and tired of the sheer amount of chitter chatter that goes on in this class, from now on you will sit in the seats I am about to assign you. There will be no fussing or whinging!"

He then proceeded to read out the names of Harry's class members and showing them the seats in which they were to sit for the remainder of the year. Fred George Seamus and Dean were sat together at the desk furthest from the front apparently Snape trusted the enough that he didn't have to keep an eye on them. Draco was sat next to a girl from Hufflepuff in the second row of desks from the front and neither of them looked particularly amused by the arrangement. Harry ended up right at the front of the classroom next to Neville, who had only just scraped into the class, so that Snape could keep an eye on them. Something that Harry appreciated it would be easier to see the board from there. His problem in years gone by was that once people started brewing the steam was almost impenetrable and therefore he couldn't read the instructions on the board. He may have imagined it for a moment, but it seemed that Snape's eyes had softened for a brief moment before moving to glare at a Ravenclaw who was reading a magazine of some kind beneath his desk.

Getting out the required ingredients from his bag for Hyppocrates' Stage one liver reviver took no more than a few seconds as the majority of the ingredients they would be using from the store. It was a very complicated potion and involved an entire pound of mint, which had to be added at precise intervals. It was now a common base for almost ever hangover potion out there as well as other medicinal product.

Neville was erecting his new collapsible cauldron, the label was still attached, hanging from the handle and claimed that it could contain any potion no matter how acidic or alkaline it was without melting. He found his gaze slowly wandering fro the label and onto his friend. It was the first time that Harry had ever really looked at Neville since they had come back to school. And for a moment it shocked hi how much Neville had grown over the summer and how broad he seemed to be, But to Harry the most significant difference was the confidence that he had gained since the battle in the ministry. It wasn't that Neville was excessively confident and Harry certainly wasn't calling him cocky but he was no longer the stuttering trembling little boy that he used to be.

"So shall I get the ingredients and you get the fire going?" Neville asked, turning back around, brushing his dark brown hair out of his eyes and raising an eyebrow at him in amusement. Harry could feel himself beginning to blush at having been caught staring.

"Fine with me." Harry stated, quickly crouching down next to his cauldron in order to hide his burning face. He poked his wand into the indentation in the floor over which he had placed his cauldron and before long he had a fire going. He then repeated the process once more to Neville's, moving his cauldron so that it sat squarely over the fire in order to heat correctly. It wasn't long before Neville was back with the ingredients and had shared them out between the two of them. They then set to work, carefully adding the four tablespoons of morning dew and shredding the vast amount of mint which was to be added in two ounces at a time. After this had been accomplished and the leaves had sweated down sufficiently, the temperature had to be increased and the unicorn hair added. Eventually after the hairs had dissolved into the mixture it was to be given twenty two clockwise stirs and a quarter anticlockwise stir.

Harry was so concentrated on the potion that he failed to notice the way that Neville was discreetly trying to sniff him whenever he could. Which in the grand scheme of things was good because such behaviour is weird at the best of times, never mind just after he had become a magical creature that was able to give birth to eggs and had had all his secrets taken away fro him.

* * *

><p>Iain Powell had just left the hospital wing, he had been asked, nay commanded by the minister of magic to stay at the school in order to provide services to one Harry Potter. He was glad in many ways that this had happened as Harry seemed to trust him and there was a lot of work that they would have to do together in the coming years. Harry had suppressed a lot of his emotions and he needed someone who was confidential and who he felt would listen to him and not dismiss him out of hand. Iain needed to help the boy realise that bottling his emotions wasn't a healthy thing to do and he needed to see what kind of coping methods he had.<p>

Poppy had been incredibly grateful for his posting at the school as he had specialised into children's and adolescent mental health healing, which was something that she had only had very basic training in and which she and Severus had often struggled to cope with in the past due to Dumbledore. They had asked for his professional opinion on a number of students, but Harry was the student that they were currently most concerned about.

The rest of the staff were busy and so he had been asked to meet the couple that had been sent from the Faerie colony to mentor Harry. It also gave him the opportunity to bring the up to speed with the situation surrounding their new ward. They had been given an up to date copy of his medical record and had asked for other school records such as what his grades have been like, his detention record etc, but the young healer knew from experience that things written down on paper/parchment never really prepared you for the real thing. Nor did they give you the understanding of a patient that you could gain from, talking to someone who had actually interacted with them.

He was to meet them at the gates to the school as they had to be allowed into the school by a member of staff. He had only been able to circumvent that as he had been with a pair of aurors who had been sent to arrest the headmaster and search the premises. The walk was quiet and he was rather proud of himself that he only managed to get lost a grand total of five times on his way down to the ground floor. Luckily the portraits had been very helpful in getting him going in the right direction once more, and he hadn't run into Peeves. The school was eerily quiet as he moved through it, as lessons had begun almost half an hour ago and with it being a Monday, everyone was expected to be in lessons.

The couple were easy to see once he got within a few meters of the gates, the taller of the two waved and the gated opened slowly. Even though the gates had opened, the newly updated wards wouldn't let them through if they weren't who was expected. A flourish that Filius had added in order to prevent another Barty Crouch Junior incident from happening again. So as the two crossed over into the school grounds, Iain breathed a sigh of relief. That was one obstacle over and done with.

He held out a hand to each of them, which they both shook firmly.

"Welcome to Hogwarts! I'm Iain Powell, I'm a paediatric healer from ST Mungos with a specialism in mental health problems. I have been positioned at the school indefinitely in order to provide my services to Harry." He had tried to use as soft and gentle approach as possible, taking into mind the fact that sometimes when he mentioned a possible mental health problem to parents and guardians they freaked out a little. Luckily these two seemed to take it pretty well.

"We're glad to finally be here, it seems like such a long times since the ball started rolling." The smaller of the two men announced, smiling at him, before introducing himself and his husband.

"My name is Edwin and this is Thaddeus. As you know we have been given custody of Harry."


	39. Chapter 39

**A/n: I'm not going to bore you with a lengthy an about why I haven't uploaded lately, needless to say a lot has happened and the vast majority of it hasn't been good. I hope that you enjoy the chapter!**

Chapter 29

Iain shook both of their hands firmly, looking them up and down with a somewhat critical eye. So far Severus had been the only member of staff that had seen any of the faerie community or had any idea what to expect. He had after all been the one to inform them of Harry's inheritance. The rest of the faculty were left hanging. Harry was one of the children that held a special place in your heart. He had been through so much and had come out of it a decent person where so many others would have used it as an excuse for bad behaviour. Madame Pomfrey was especially protective of him due to the amount of time that he had spent with her.

It would take some very special people to be able to reach through all the barriers that Harry had around him, people who weren't going to leave him the moment that a problem appeared. If Iain was completely honest with himself, the two men in front of him where going to have to do an awful lot to gain Harry's trust and their arrival could either help Harry or it could make his mental state worse.

"Well I have been assigned to answer as many questions as i can on the way into school, where we will meet with the school's permanent healer Madam Pomfrey who has known Harry since his first year here." The healer stated. He was feeling a little shaky due to a peaking feeling of anxiety, but remembered to try to keep his professional face on. Such things were important when talking to service users and their families. How were they supposed to have faith in you, if you were a nervous wreck?

"Ah. We expected that something along these lines would occur." Edwin replied, lifting the suitcases he was holding to what looked like a more comfortable carrying height than the previous one.

"We have read all of the information that was sent to us about Harry, so we have some idea of what is going on and what has gone on." The taller of the two said, brushing a rogue piece of hair out of his eyes that had been blown by the gentle breeze. "But we appreciate the fact that the paperwork can only show you a little bit of what someone is actually like."

Iain led them through the grounds of the school to the front door. In that time the three of them talked about many different things, from how he found the school to be, to what Harry was like. By the time that they reached the front doors Iain was relatively certain that they were good people who had relatively extensive experience looking after children. That served to make him feel much more at ease with the whole situation.

Their expressions upon entering the entrance hall had been much the same as he had felt upon entering it a little over a week or so ago. Of course he had been distracted by the appearance of Albus Dumbledore shortly afterwards, before being spirited away by the Matron, but it had still awed him. A young specialist healer who had been home schooled in the valleys of Wales such a castle had been a surprise.

Edwin and Thaddeus had been sheltered away from the wizarding world and there was no doubt that they would be feeling the differences between the two cultures acutely over the next few days. Hopefully the similarities would help them find their feet quicker.

The two stood with there arms linked taking in the surroundings and whispering quietly together. Iain was unable to hear what it was that they were saying, but the tone sounded uncomfortable.

"This is the main entrance to the school, through those doors is the main hall where the students eat their meals and this is the staircase that we will be taking to the sixth floor, where the infirmary is located." Iain pointed first to the doors leading to the main hall and then to the stair case that they would be taking, smiling and trying to look like he was sure of how to get there. "If you would follow me please?"

Surprisingly they made it up the moving staircases without too many problems and the young healer managed to navigate his way through the rabbit warren of corridors to the infirmary in record time only getting them lost once. Madame Pomfrey was waiting for them at the entrance to the hospital wing, wearing her uniform, as it seemed that she always did. Iain had started to wonder recently whether the woman actually ever slept. No matter the time of day or night he walked into the wing, she was there.

Her friendly smile seemed to set the two men beside him at more ease than he had been able to manage within the last half an hour and made him feel a little inadequate. Maybe it was her years of experience that had forged that smile and bedside manner. Iain thought he was better able to talk to the children and young adults in his care rather than their parents/guardians.

Soon all four of them were sat in the somewhat cramped office of the matron, with a cup of tea in one hand and a ginger newt in the other. A good cup of tea always made a difficult conversation easier to have.

"I am Poppy Pomfrey the school's full time healer." Poppy began, running her hands over her apron, to smooth it out.

"It's nice to meet you." Thaddeus stated quietly, placing his blue china cup onto its saucer gently, before straightening back up again in his seat. "There are a few things that we would like to ask, if you would be so kind as to answer them."

"I will endeavour to do so to the best of my ability." The matron answered, taking one last swig of her tea before giving the pair her undivided attention.

"What are Harry's favourite subjects?" Edwin asked. He looked genuinely interested.

"His favourite without a doubt is defence against the dark arts, which as you know is one the subjects that he gets the best grades in."

The conversation took some time to have and covered many different topics, from how well Harry was responding to treatment to what was being done about Albus Dumbledore. It was lunchtime before anyone realised.

"I think that it would be best if we didn't introduce you to Harry just yet. He has only just been let out of the infirmary and so I would like to reduce the amount of shocks that he has at once." Iain explained, his hands tightly fisted into his lap. "He didn't take the inheritance very well and I have no idea how he will respond to you being made his guardians. Harry is a very strongly independent boy."

"We can understand wanting to wait to do that, it seems that Harry has been through the mill a bit recently. I suppose that you will inform him of our…existence soon, and then give him time to adjust to it before we meet." The taller of the two men stated, he had stood up and was helping his husband out of the heavily cushioned chair next to him.

Madam Pomfrey nodded solemnly opening the door for them.

"He is due to visit us in the morning for a check up so I think that it would be best to do it then."

Edwin nodded wincing as he was hoisted out of the chair by his mate.

"My knees aren't what they used to be!"

After potions there was a short break before they had their first creature class. The classes weren't supposed to start until much later, but as a group they had reasoned that because of Harry's early inheritance they had decided to move the whole thing up in the schedule. It could be that Harry needed to know a lot of stuff now that he had been through his inheritance, but could also mean that they expected a rash of inheritances to occur and they needed as many people prepared as possible. Either way it would be nice to know something more about what was going on. The books that he had been given by Madame Pomfrey seemed to contradict themselves rather a lot and so it was hard to know what to trust as fact.

All seven of them were sat in one of the many empty classrooms up on the second floor of the castle playing exploding snap. This was also the floor that the creature class would be on, for the Gryffindors. Apparently they were going to be split up into the houses for this subject. Harry was glad that he wouldn't have to see Draco Malfoy but was dreading being in the same room as Ron and Hermione.

His friends hadn't really talked abut Harry's inheritance since he head left the hospital wing and that was something that he was glad of. It was nice not to think about it when he was with them; they trusted that he would talk to them if he needed to or that he would go to one of the two healers. The lot of them had squashed out the bit of him that wanted to keep weaknesses to him-self after the transformation. It did after all seem to attract a lot of danger.

An explosion, like a cannon went off as Seamus won the round, or lost as it seemed that his eyebrows were smoking copiously. Dean was laughing as his boyfriend turned towards him, eyebrows smoking and three cards in his left hand. It was like the time in first year where he had tried to levitate his feather and the time that he had tried to turn his water into rum.

Fred was letting Luna braid silver and gold beads into his hair, and had restarted the game with a renewed vigour. Luna seemed to be much happier today than she had been in the last few weeks and had greeted him this morning by saying, 'The butterflies will find their lost egg soon.' To which he had nodded and smiled. It was better to do such things as Luna was hardly ever able to explain herself any better than the original statement and the meaning would be found in good time.

Fifteen minutes later, the boys made their way to the creature lesson and Luna made her way to Herbology.

"I'm off to meet Gilbert bye boys!" She had shouted as she skipped out of the room, her blonde hair swinging wildly around her. Gilbert was of course the magical gladiolus that she was growing for her Herbology extra credit. Herbology was one of her favourite lessons as she liked to talk to the plants within the greenhouses and was determined to become a magical biologist.

The creature class was in one of the previously abandoned classrooms, one that Harry had walked past hundreds of times during the years he had been there and that he had never really seen. It was a strange room as it had a glass window in the door something that none of the other rooms that he could think of, had. They were five minutes early for the lesson and the vast majority of people had already arrived and were standing in a neat line down the side of the corridor. At a quick glance, Harry was unable to see Ron or Hermione among his fellow classmates and he breathed a sigh of relief. The last thing that he wanted on his first day back in school properly was to start another confrontation. He didn't have the energy for a fight, neither physically nor mentally.

As the bell went, the door opened and the teacher came out of the room. No one had noticed him before when they had taken a cursory view of the room, but he was someone that was hard to miss. He had shoulder length brown hair that was tied up in a ponytail rather like the one that Bill Weasley had worn when Harry had met him. At first glance nothing seemed abnormal about this, until Harry noticed the small red-brown leaves that were in it. He couldn't decide whether they were for decoration or were actually part of the man' s hair. The teacher also had deep brown eyes that looked much older than the rest of his body seemed to be.

"Hello class, my name is Professor Rowan. Welcome to your first creature studies class." The now named Professor Rowan said with a genuine smile upon his face. "Please enter the classroom and sit wherever you like, there will be no set seating for this class."

They all dutifully filed in after one another and sat down around the square tables in their friendship groups. The room reminded Harry strongly of the classrooms of his old primary school and it felt very safe.

**A/n: I know that we aren't supposed to use the chapters for answering reviews, but since so many of you are guests or have private messaging switched off i've decided to answer you all below. Sorry in advance if i have missed out anyones reviews. **

**Emily Redbird: Thank you for your review, i'm really glad that you think that it is a believable universe. That was what i was aiming for the most. Yeah ...hem... 'mating rituals' will not be happening for some time. I want Harry to have a strong and loving bond with whoever he is in a relationship with before it gets that far. I do try to go over my work as best as i can to look for mistakes, but it seems that some have slipped through. I totally forgot about Beta readers existing *blush*, but as i've never had one, i don't really know how to go about it. It just intrigues me, especially when a country that i don't know about pops up. Then i go look at a map to find out. Your English is a thousand times better than my Danish (seeing as i don't know any) I do know a little bit of German though.**

**Midnight41 It's cute isn't it the scene just popped into my head as i was shopping in Tesco.**

**107602 I know i'm both excited and terrified about them all meeting up there's going to be so many emotions flying around. It would be very easy to make it bad i think.**

**Aoifedb I think that's what everyone is waiting for, i have some idea of when that is going to happen but the plot is very fluid at the moment. For example i changed what i'm going to do to Dumbledore.**

**Unknown Guest flamer: Welcome to the world of magic and FICTION. That is all**

**Twilightreaderaddict/Meechy: I think that they are going to have a challenge on their hands as well. There is so much that has happened in Harry's life that he hasn't dealed with. From his childhood which according to the books at least contained neglect to the death of Cedric and Sirius. Harry is a very curious character.**

**Sssnitch: Hertzlieb willkommen zu meinen Geschichte! I'm sorry if the grammar was bad my German isn't very good. I haven't used it since I learnt it in school. I get very excited by the thought that people in countries all over the world are reading the story. Ich denke das ihr englisch ist sehr gut und besser als meinen deutsch. I'm very flattered that you think that it is one of the best!**

**DontBeASourLemon: Yeah people do tend to forget about the female members of what ever species that they have created when the main pairing is m/m. I'm glad that you like it thus far.**

**KyuubiChild717: Can't tell you that, you'll have to wait. ;D Don't worry Luna won't be getting hurt I love her too much to let too much happen to her. In my head yes they are students in the school with personal experiences with creature inheritances but also some Muggleborns who are ok with it. Edwin and Thaddeus are going to be pretty vicious with people who hurt 'their baby' once they aclimatise to the situation.**

**Slate_Grey: Thank you very much!**

**Retkula: Thank you! I'm glad that you think that it is believable, I thought about what I would do if something like that was sprung up on me. I tried to make something that didn't conform to some of the strong stereotypes that you tend to find in stories like this. *blushes* It's nice to see that others can see what I had planned to do. I have tried to shorten them in the past, but for some reason or other they just don't want to… Yay Finland! I like to collect new places**

**Mizzrazz72: I think that Molly is willing to do anything to further the family name because she strikes me as a very manipulative person, who always wants to get her own way.**

**Flying_Chrissy: Don't worry I have a very evil plan for Dumbledore. He's going to get his just desserts, just you wait and see. *insert evil laughter of your choice here***

**RRW: I don't remember saying that they had met, only that they will be meeting soon.**

**Timberstar: I'm sorry for the long waits between my uploads. A little something is beginning to grow between them yes.**


	40. Chapter 40

Chapter 40

The classroom itself was painted in a very calming pale blue colour and was fitted with a thick carpet instead of the wooden and stone floors that were found throughout the rest of the castle. On the walls were a number of brightly painted pictures, but from where Harry was sitting it was hard to actually make out what they were actually were.

One wall of the classroom sported a large window through which you could see the lake shining in the morning sunlight and the edge of the forbidden forest in the distance. The windowsill was painted white and many different plants were growing in pots upon it. Neville seemed to be looking at them intently, no doubt he knew what they were and everything there was to know about them.

The Professor had moved to the front of the classroom to stand before a black board and was clearly waiting for the excited and nervous chatter from his new students to calm down. Before long everyone had quietened down and was waiting to hear what the professor was going to say.

Professor Rowan pulled out a folded sheet of parchment and began to take the register. Ron and Hermione had still not arrived to the lesson by this time and although the teacher asked the whole class if they knew where they were no-one knew. Most people hadn't seen them since either potions or breakfast this morning.

At this he popped out of the lesson for five minutes...

* * *

><p>Professor Rowan was worried about the two students that were missing from his lesson, especially since these were two that the rest of the staff had noticed a significant change in. There was also the fact that they hadn't been seen by their house mates for such a long had not been able to give any advice to the rest of the staff on what to do about Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger as he had never taught them before and therefore didn't know them anywhere near as well as everyone else.<p>

No-one in the class seemed to know where they were only that they had last been seen in the first lesson that they had had that morning. It was vital that they were found as soon as possible, the most likely thing that had happened was that the two of them were skiving from his lesson. Apparently Ronald was one of the students that held very anti creature belifs and so that prospect wasn't unlikely. It was still however important to find wherever it was that they were in case anything sinister had happened.

As such he left his class in order to follow the school's procedure for such things and flooed the school nurse, she startled a little at his face appearing in the fire. He quickly asked wether either of them were with her and she confirmed that they were not. Madam Pomfrey then said that she would take over the search from then on as he still had a class to teach.

* * *

><p>He returned with a worried look upon his face and began with the lesson properly.<p>

"I'm sure everyone in this room is aware of the fact that you were not meant to start these lessons until the third term of school, but they have had to be moved forward due to certain circumstances." At this the room at one turned to look at Harry who was feeling uncomfortable and he squirmed in his seat a little, his face turning bright red. Being looked at in this way made him feel like a volatile potion, that everyone was trying to stop exploding. Little beads of sweat started forming on his face and down his back, making him feel even more uncomfortable.

"As I said before there will be no set seating in this class, because we will be talking about various quite intimate subjects and I want everyone to feel as comfortable as possible." Professor Rowan stated, looking at everyone in the room in turn, a bright smile upon his face. Lavender Brown had giggled at the word intimate and elbowed Paravati, who was busy drooling. Professor Rowan merely raised an eyebrow at the pair.

"As this is the first lesson don't expect things to be too heavy. " Professor Rowan stated moving to sit on the corner of the desk. "On your desk as I'm sure you are aware is a book this is yours for the lessons to take notes in and in which to write your homework. "There were rustles as everyone pulled the thick books towards them. Harry looked down at his, it was a plain white colour, like everyone else's and he was happy to note that it came with pre ruled pages like a muggle notebook. "In the front you will notice there is a section for you to fill in to tell me about yourself please turn past this onto the first clean page and copy what I am going to write on the board." The classroom was filled with people rushing to get their quills out in order to write it down. "This is what we will be learning over the course of the next two years."

**Year one**

**Inheritances- who you are, what's happening and who to call**

**My body and mind**

**Relationships- what's healthy and what's not**

**Sexual Education- Where babies come from**

"Does that mean we'll be talking about…sex?" Seamus asked, his voice squeaking a little at the end, and his face turned beetroot red. Harry bit his lip to prevent himself from laughing at the look of terror that had momentarily crossed his Irish friends face shortly afterwards. But the teacher took the question in stride, obviously used to questions of this sort being asked in his lessons.

"Yes we will be covering sex, sexual organs and reproduction. Not only that between various creature pairings, but we will also cover basic human stuff as well for those of you that will not have an inheritance."

**First aid**

**How to look after a baby**

**The workplace**

**Laws of the wizarding world and those of the creature councils**

** Year two**

**Manners and etiquette- wizarding and creature**

**Beliefs and customs**

**First aid level 2**

**Money and management**

**Babies and children 2**

**Who am i?**

**Preparation for the workplace**

"Once you've copied this down you may leave make sure that you write your name on the front of the book your year and house so that know who it belongs to. For homework..." At this everyone moaned the school year had hardly begun and they were already snowed under with work. "I want you to decorate the outside of your class book in a way that shows your personality and fill in the front of the book for our next lesson.

The class slowly drained from the room but the professor called harry back.

"I just want to say that you are taking this all very well especially since unlike your class mates you won't have had a warning of what is to come."

Harry gazed up at him awkwardly shifting from foot to foot and adjusting his bag strap.

"I've not really had any other choice have i?" He blurted out somewhat harshly looking at his feet. "Everyone's been really great about it but it still freaks me out a little every now and then."

"It still freaks me out and i was born this way Harry, just remember that you are not alone and that some of your classmates will have much weirder inheritances than yours."

* * *

><p>The Dumbledore house still lay in Godric's Hollow and Albus had been forced to return to it for the first time in a long while. It had been at least twenty years since e had stepped through the doors. Aberforth came here often despite living over his pub in Hogsmead. Aberforth had always been closer to this place where their lives had disintegrated around them. There were few if any happy memories he had made here. For now he was trapped within the building, the magical dampening cuffs that he was forced to wear did little to improve his mood as they were fitted with a tracking spell that he had been informed would alert the entire Auror department if we so much as stepped over the boundary line. Aurors stood around the border and he could see children that he had carefully grown into servants to his will during their time at Hogwarts openly defying him, to top the whole situation off they had taken away various items from the family home and presumably from the office as well. He had never bothered hiding his plans all that well after all it was his office and personal quarters and apart from Harry no one was ever left in there unsupervised. He could see now that writing them down had been somewhat foolish.<p>

One thing that would work in his favour however was the fact that the British Wizarding world was gloriously backwards compared to everywhere else in Europe. The likelihood of anyone in the department being able to speak German was very low and they were too snobbish to think of asking anyone else for help translating them. The plans that he had created over the last fifty years had ensured that the whole ministry was incompetent so that they had to come crawling back to him whenever something they couldn't cope with happened. Of course the times he actually stepped into stop the country grinding to a halt were few and far between but that made the occasions all the more spectacular. He also looked even more like a hero which of course was his plan. Things over the last couple of months had of course been a lot harder to manipulate than he had anticipated.

Harry had defeated Voldermort a lot sooner than he had thought possible but then it hadn't been the show stopping duel that he had wanted. After Bellatrix had gotten rid of the most annoying Black heir Harry had chased after her in what he perceived to be an infantile rage. It wasn't as if Sirius Black and Harry knew each other very well after all he had ensured that they spent little time together as possible. It wouldn't do for him to grow close to the man. Albus needed a loose cannon. A boy who was unstable and unattached to others was something that was vital to his plans. Bellatrix had flooed out of the ministry atrium and harry had come face to face with Voldermort. It was needless to say that harry hadn't been particularly pleased about this. The boy had lunged at dear Tom catching him unaware the two of them toppled backwards into the famous fountain. Both of them cracked their heads off the centaurs bronze tail and were knocked unconscious. By the time the Order had managed to get to them Voldermort had drowned. All in all it was rather disappointing.

Fudge had been kicked out of office not long afterwards. Everything had gone wrong from that moment on the mew minister of magic didn't like him and wouldn't listen to his suggestions and had purged the ministry looking for staff with dark marks to begin with and then questioning everyone in every department with veritasium. At least half of the staff were dismissed and the minster had declared that she would be doing a cabinet reshuffle within the next six months, (moving/replacing and maybe keeping in the same place the heads of department).

An auror with short salt and pepper hair winked at him through the parlour window Albus merely scowled in contempt. There had to be a way out of this place he rubbed his left wrist absently and suddenly remembered something. When he had been a child long before the dreadful incident that had happened to his sister, Aberforth had gotten his head stuck in some railings and one of their muggle neighbours had gotten it out by putting butter on them. Maybe he could do the same with the cuffs they were loose enough that it should be possible and the charm on them shouldn't be triggered if they weren't taken off by magical means.

* * *

><p>Neville was the only one of them that had taken muggle studies, so he ran up to the dorm to collect his textbook before coming down to dinner, Harry didn't blame him for not wanting to carry it around with him all day it was after all extremely heavy. The rest of the group headed down the stairs to the great hall.<p>

"He seems like a pretty ok bloke if you ask me!" Fred said, adjusting his tie so that it lay straight over his shirt rather than at the strange angle that it had been pulled by his bag strap.

"Professor Rowan?" Dean asked, pushing a rouge piece of hair out of his eyes.

"Yeah, he's the sort of bloke that you know cares about his job and you could tell him stuff without him grassing on you." Everyone nodded the teacher did come across as someone that would listen to you, no matter what the problem was and who wouldn't judge you for it."What did he want to talk to you about anyway?"

Harry sighed deeply fiddling with the hem of his sleeve.

"He just wanted to say that he thought that I was coping well with it. And even though I still feel weird about it other people are probably going to get stranger things."

There was no sound other than their footsteps against the worn stone of the corridor for some time. Everyone knew not to confront Harry about any of the sometimes strange ideas that he had about himself. The boy was a stubborn one and there was very little you could do to change his mind about something once he had made it up. None of them thought that he was weird, but that wouldn't stop Harry himself from thinking that.

George winked at him and smiled, no doubt thinking about how weird things could get.

Harry felt in his pocket for the second dose of nutrition potion that he had been given by madam Pomfrey with strict instructions to take it...or else. Thinking of the meeting that he was going to have with her and Iain later on this afternoon was also taking up his concentration. It was basically going to be a physical and mental check up to see how he was and stuff. He knew that there was no way that he could get out of it. Neither were people that you wanted to get on the wrong side of. Anyway it wasn't as if they were going to do anything horrible. The whole situation just made him feel really weird, like he'd been stripped of most of his clothes. After the glamour had been taken off people were looking at him differently. Sure he looked like he'd lost about five stone in a week, but it just wasn't polite.

As they get closer and closer to the great hall they encountered more people, until they were caught in the crush to get through the doors of the great hall for dinner. Luna was already seated at the Ravenclaw table once she saw them, she waved so enthusiastically that the quill she had placed behind her ear fell out into her soup. She laughed, fishing it out with her fingers. Harry smiled at her fondly before turning to go to his house table.

They hadn't been seated long before Neville came to join them, his face was sweaty and when he put his bag down on the floor it made a resounding think noise. It was a shame that you couldn't put feather light charms on books very easily.

Professor McGonagall who at the moment was acting Headmistress had started to overhaul the school menu and for that Harry was immensely glad. There was stuff that he could actually eat now. Sure plenty of the old heavily fatty, sugary and salty foods were still here, but everyone had different dietary requirements. His mouth watered at the fish directly in front of him he didn't know what type of fish it was but it looked really tasty and the smell was causing his stomach to rumble. He quickly commandeered a plate before someone else took a liking to it and drank the nutrition potion that he had been given. It didn't taste as bad as other potions that he had had to take in the past, but he doubted that anything could be as bad as Skelegrow. It helped with the queasiness that he often felt when eating and had given him a bit more interest in the foods that he was eating. Before he had only eaten because it was something that he had to do. Now he was beginning to find that it could also be an enjoyable experience. Dean and Seamus were fighting over the last cheese savoury sandwich, Fred was putting two breadsticks into his mouth and making Walrus noises and George was making a mashed potato sculpture of what looked like Umbridge being chased by a centaur holding a fish.

When the puddings came out harry could feel his stomach beginning to protest. He hadn't eaten anywhere near as much as his friends had but then Madame Pomfrey had said that he shouldn't expect too much too soon. Especially since his stomach had shrunken considerably over the time that he had been at the Dursleys. Something like that would take time to be put right. Despite this he managed to eat a lot more than he usually would have . Headmistress McGonagall stood up from her seat at the teachers table and cleared her throat in order to get their attention.

"I would like to thank all of you who have been brave enough to submit your memories to the Auror department and I would like to remind you all that the opportunity is still there for you to use the pensive. Remember that any information that you might have could be vital to them!"

Harry could see the uncomfortable looks on the faces of many of his fellow students, there were very few people that wanted to believe that Dumbledore had done something bad, especially not something bad enough that he was facing trial over it. "I also want you to know that the head of the Auror department has asked that you all be checked for spells that might have been put on you by the former Headmaster, as we are already in the possession of evidence that he has done this to at least one student. Checks will start on Monday morning in the Hospital Wing, appointment times will be on your house notice boards in the morning.

**A/n: Hi! I have something that you can all help me with, I would like suggestions for what creature inheritance you would like Ronald Billius Weasley to have. Bigger points for the weirder your suggestions are! Come on get those creative juices flowing, I want something to really creep our creature hater out! XD**

Makurayami Ookami: Thank you very much, I'm glad that you like the story so far. J

KyuubiChild717: Has this chapter answered your question? :D I'm not really sure about a triad… but I'm keeping my mind open the story has already changed a lot from my original plot line.

107602: Here is the rest of the creature class for you I hope that you found it interesting.

RRW: Ron and Hermione will be back in the story within the next few chapters. Hermione is a smart girl, I'm sure that she will figure things out eventually!

Emily Redbird: In the next couple of chapters I'll try to do a re-cap of all the OC's in the fic for you. Might help me to keep them in order too! J

The story is progressing to the point where they will become a bigger part of the main story.

I can understand that they (schools) don't want to put people off learning other languages by starting with hard ones… We had to learn French and then if we were good at it we then had to learn German. Trouble is I have a very strong Yorkshire accent so I could never pronounce any French. I loved taking German though!

Midnight41: Thank you. Here is the chapter that you wanted!

Timberstar: Yeah I made him a little like me in that sense, I interact a lot better with children and the elderly than I do people my own age. Well done for noticing my not so subtle clue. XD Hope you enjoyed the chapter.

Yana5: Thank you for your review

Guest (aka flamer): What pray made it so? I would love to know. J

Zana20: I've made this one longer to make up for it. Thank you for reading it!

**I love you all thank you for your support for the story. I'm glad to be back with you all, i've had a brief stay in Hospital but now i'm back. Hope that you enjoyed the new chapter and i also hope that you'll leave a review for me. See you soon!**

**...raven...**


	41. Chapter 41

Chapter 41

Edwin and Thaddeus had been shown to the quarters that they had been assigned within the school for their use. The meeting that they had earlier on, had seemed to have gone as well, as anyone could have hoped for given the circumstances. They hadn't expected to see Harry today but still, it would have been nice. Both of them would have liked to have seen the boy that they had taken into their family and who they and the colony had fought the wizarding ministry for.

The poor thing must be feeling all sorts of emotions right now. Edwin had no idea how he would have reacted if he had no idea of the inheritance that he had gained was going to happen, but the school seemed to have managed the situation rather well. The thing that he was most worried about in the short term, was Harry's wings and he didn't feel that he could settle until he had seen them.

They were the part of a Faerie's body that was the most delicate as they were liable to become damaged very easily when someone first emerged. Unlike the butterflies they resembled Faeries were able to grow back scales, losing them was still excruciatingly painful and was something that was to be avoided at all costs.

The quarters that they had been given were on a basement level near the kitchens. Apparently it was because these were the warmest that they had and with winter coming in fast it was vital. An ambient temperature above fourteen degrees was important, if they weren't to enter into their hibernation phase. It would be pretty embarrassing to do that here. Hopefully where Harry was sleeping was a good temperature as well.

The door to their rooms took the form of one of the many moving portraits that were scattered throughout the school. Neither of them had seen a talking portrait before coming to the castle and they were taking some getting used to. It was a painting of a unicorn in a meadow of wildflowers and they had had to say a certain password to it in order to open the door.

Thaddeus sighed, collapsing face first into the cushions of the sofa the moment that they stepped through the door. The room was warm heated by a large stone fireplace, next to which was an oaken bookshelf which would be useful to put the books that they had brought with them. Edwin could feel his back itching; it was strange to be walking around without his wings on display for such a long time. At the colony it was pretty unusual to fold them away like they had, but you were also less likely to bang them on things as you were here.

Unpacking took them over two hours as they had brought a lot with them from their home. Neither of them had known what to expect about a wizards school and so had brought just about everything with them, from towels to bed linen. Sure they could have transfigured them from something else, but transfigured objects still retained a lot of the characteristics of the original item. There was also the fact that they weren't particularly stable either, they could turn back to the original as the spell aged and weakened.

Tomorrow they might be meeting Harry and that was something that they were looking forward to. It was also something that should go in one of two ways Harry could hate them, or things would be awkward and they would build a better relationship as they got to know one another better. After all what was written on a piece of paper couldn't ever match up properly to what a person was really like. Especially if that piece of paper had been written on by someone else. The background facts that they had about everything Harry had been very thorough.

When everything had been packed away both of them were tired, sweaty and hungry. In the kitchen they had been left some kind of meat stew with vegetables in it and a fruit tart. It wasn't the kind of thing that they usually had, both were good at cooking and dinner was something that they made together with their kids, whenever they got the chance. It was an important bonding time, it was also an important way of teaching them life skills that they would need when they were out on their own. All of their biological children had grown up and fled the nest, and cooking had become something that they did as a couple.

* * *

><p>Madame Pomfrey was really worried when Professor Rowan called to say that both Ronald Weasley and Hermione Granger were missing from his class. Considering the differences in both of their behaviors over the last few months especially Hermione's increased her concern for them both. With everything that had been going on over the last few weeks she had been meaning to have a meeting with them both separately to try and find out what was going on.<p>

She walked back into the main ward of the hospital wing checking on the few patients that were under her care. Of the five, two were asleep with a bad case of unicorn flu, one was sat up in bed reading and the last two were recovering from a nasty bite given by a seventh year Veela who had spurned their advances. It wasn't as busy as it had been the year when the Marauders had turned the fifth floor corridor into an ice rink and half of the school had ended up needing her skills, but it was still a challenge to deal with. She had to admit that seeing Albus Dumbledore falling down three flights of stairs had been hilarious at the time and could still bring a fond tear to her eye.

Seeing that the students weren't going to suffer without her presence she put a monitoring charm on them, before setting off on her search for the two missing students. It was at times like this she wished that there was more staff in this place. Poppy had no idea what she would do if anything truely serous happened or there was a sudden epidemic. St Mungos would only take very seriously ill patients from the school. It was hard for them to keep the hospital wing and the school in general, ticking over when there were so few of them manning the pumps. She could remember when she was at school here, there had been more staff and there had been a few more subjects on the books as well. After all she had taken introduction to healing class that had set her up well for training as a healer at St Mungo's.

There were of course other hospitals but St Mungo's had the most prestige. If you passed your training and apprenticeship there, people thought better of you than if you had come from one of the others. That was one of the reasons that she had taken a liking to Iain so quickly, he was very young to be a healer and was obviously very good at his job otherwise he wouldn't have been sent by the hospital to help her with Harry. It was nice to have a colleague that she could talk to about healing, and with their different healing backgrounds both had a lot that they could teach each other.

Unfortunately Iain was up on the Paediatric ward in the hospital this morning and wouldn't be back until his appointment that he had with Harry. It was part of his contract that he had to spend so much time at the hospital and so much in the school in order to keep up his skills. If he had been here she wouldn't have had to leave her patients alone. Which was something that she hated doing, there was always the chance that something would go wrong.

According to professor rowan no one had ever seen either Ronald Weasley or Hermione Granger since breakfast this morning. It reminded her strongly of the day of Harry's transformation and she hoped it wasn't the sort of situation that was going on at the moment. They had enough upcoming creature inheritances to worry about without adding a possible two more unknown ones to their workload.

Hippocrates had looked worried when she had asked him to ask the portraits whether or not they had seen a pair of Gryffindors, and had given him a description of Ron and Hermione.

"What is with children these days, especially Gryffindors?" He sighed before he had walked out of his frame. Poppy spent a few minutes watching anxiously for news. It seemed like hours had passed before the father of medicine walked back into his frame sweating profusely and with a harried look upon his face. But it could have only been ten or fifteen minutes at the most. "Down on the second floor in the room that Delphnius Black is hanged. Apparently just the girl is there and she looks to be in a bad way." For a brief moment poppy panicked and clenched her hands tightly in the folds of her dress before pulling herself back together again. The child needed her now and needed her in a state where she could actually do something to help her.

She rushed back into her office and pulled out her emergency medical kit before flooing Severus who was currently covering a history of magic lesson. Professor Binns had chosen the most inopportune moment to come to terms with his death and pass onto the net life. Now they were short another teacher. Admittedly Binns hadn't been a great one but he had been better than nothing. His subject had always been the hardest one of all to fill.

The potions master had seemed just as concerned as she was about the situation and it made her feel less panicked at the knowledge that she had some back up to help her deal with whatever was wrong with the Gryffindor girl.

"Get to the room on the second floor that had that picture of Delphinus black i'll meet you there." And then she rushed off at top speed her shoes making a resounding tap upon the stone floor in the empty corridor. She had to wait five minutes for one of the staircases to resolve close enough for her to board it but eventually she reached her destination. Her face was bright red and shining with sweat from her run. She panted, desperately trying to get her breathing under control somewhat before she entered the room.

At first when the medi-witch opened the door, she didn't see anything, but once she moved past the first row of desks she found her patient. Hermione was laying face first on the floor in a small pool of vomit with a broken glass vial in her left hand. Poppy was greatly concerned by the colour of the vomit which was a bright red colour, something that could be a sign of internal bleeding. She hurriedly kneeled down beside her and cast a diagnostic charm. The girl was breathing very slowly and shallowly and her heart was also slowing down. The results from the charm, weren't good, they confirmed that her heart was slowing down and that she wasn't breathing anywhere near fast enough. Her blood was also filled with some foreign body that was destroying cell tissue, mostly in her stomach and liver, but also in her kidneys.

Taking inspiration from the vial she banished the contents of Hermione's stomach into a specimen jar for Severus to analyse when he got here. It seemed that she had taken something what t was she had no way of telling without Severus' expert knowledge. In the meantime she did what she could to keep the girl alive. In her bag there were many different cures for potions poisoning but many of them could be just as dangerous as whatever it was they had then if administered wrongly. There was o course a Bezor but that was something that she didn't use unless there was no other option. You could build up an immunity to them over time and that was something that was incredibly dangerous, plus there were also people that were allergic to them as well.

A strong life support charm was placed on Miss Granger and it made poppy feel calmer than before whilst she was still in danger at least now she was getting enough oxygen into her blood and the potion was no longer being absorbed. It gave her more time to play with. Poppy rolled her into the recovery position, after checking the results to see if there was any spinal damage, wiping the sick from her face and cleaning it from the floor. Severus turned up just as soon as she had finished looking flushed and very concerned.

"Query potions overdose. There is a vial in her hand." Poppy explained holding the girl's hand which was clammy. Severus nodded moving over to kneel beside her. "Careful it's broken!" Severus gently prized the girls fingers open and removed the glass gingerly. "There is a tiny amount of it left in the bottom." Severus sad happily taking a sniff of it before blanching. "Poppy we need to give her Norton's elixir."

"Amortelia!" She exclaimed loudly immediately throwing open her bag and summoning the requested cure. "I'm afraid so i did think it was to begin with because of the colour." He showed her the few drops in the bottom of the vial instead of being a pink colour they were bright red. "It's been condensed to make it stronger." Poppy had already taken he stopper out of the bottle of Norton's elixir.

"Don't worry dear were going to make you better."

She spelled it straight into the girl's blood stream although much harder to do there wasn't the time to spell into her stomach and wait for it to absorb. Poppy also re-cast the diagnostic charm this time making it much more in depth than the previous one. The dictating quill was soon whizzing across the page. It listed everything that had happened to her medically over the past three months starting from the newest to the oldest. Her liver and kidney function was down but that was to be expected considering what had happened. It was something that they needed to keep an eye on over the next few hours. Hopefully with time it would return to normal. Hermione moaned which they took as a good thing. With care the two of them placed a hover charm on her and got ready to leave. "I don't think that we'll have to send her up to St Mungo's but she'll definitely need monitoring for some time to come. "The nearest two was in an abandoned teachers quarters at the other end of the corridor. Within no time the three were in the hospital wing.

* * *

><p>Ronald was in a state of sheer panic he could feel his heart beating loud and fast in his chest. He was running stooped low so that he didn't bang his head on the low ceiling of the secret passageway. There was only one place in the school that he could hide and that was the room of requirement Fred and George knew the school like the back of their own hands and Harry still had the marauders map. It was only a matter of time before they found out what had happened. No doubt being the moral police that they were, they would come after him. He hadn't meant to hurt her, but she had slowly been building up a resistance to the potion.<p>

His mother had sad that it was perfectly safe to use. He wouldn't have had to use t id he she had just done as she was told. Everyone could see that they were destined to be together! When they got out of school they would get married and have lots of children. It had only started as him putting a single drop of the potion into her tea once a week. It had been hard to trick her into drinking it back then, because they had slowly been growing apart. There had been a few things that they hadn't seen eye to eye on. Hermione had changed within seconds of taking the initial dose of the potion. But over time he had had to give her more and more of the stuff for it to have the same effect. His mother had made him the potions and owled them to him at school. The one that he had given Hermione earlier that morning had been the first of a new batch and it seemed that it had probably been too strong and Ron had known that the moment that she got into the hospital wing they would know what it was that she had taken and that would lead them straight back to him so he had run and had no intention to stop.


	42. Chapter 42

Chapter 42

Minerva Mc Gonnagoll rushed to the floo in her new headmistress' office. Poppy had just told her of Hermione Granger's condition. It didn't rain, it poured when it came to problems here in Hogwarts, as soon as she felt that they had dealt with one problem another twelve sprouted out of nowhere. She had already told the staff to keep the children in the main hall until the situation had been dealt with. Everyone was gathered there for their meal anyway and it was one of the most heavily warded areas of the school, making it ideal.

The school was in lock down, she had closed the wards to ensure that the only way in and out was through her fireplace. Two teams of aurors had already passed through it to search the school not long after she had raised the alarm with the ministry. All of them had been wearing the customary red robes that marked out their profession, some she remembered from their time at Hogwarts and some were new faces. Since Dumbledore's taking over of the school and increasing number of families had decided to home school their children, although it was still quite rare.

The new headmistress was waiting for the last group, who would be escorting Hermione's parents from their house up to the school to be with their daughter. Hopefully they would be sensitive to the situation and explain the situation in a way that the two of them could understand. It was going to be a very uncomfortable situation. How did you explain to the parents of one of your students that she had been drugged for what seemed to be a large part of the school year (though it was possibly longer) and that because none of them had confronted her about her sudden change in attitude, she had almost been killed?

The floo flared once again, and she moved back in order to give them the space to get through, leaning slightly against the desk behind her. The two Aurors came out first, both young by the look of them with rave expressions on their faces. Who she assumed was Hermione's mother was the next to emerge, she stumbled slightly, but the auror closest to her caught her by the elbow and stopped her from falling face first into the carpet.

Minerva quickly ushered her into a chair that was close by. Mrs Granger was a woman in her late forties and possibly early fifties with hair that was beginning to grey at her temples and was dressed in a white uniform. Her eyes were somewhat red, showing that she had been crying recently but had managed to get control of herself before coming here. Her husband followed a minute or two afterwards, stepping gracefully out of the fireplace, immediately looking around for his wife. He was also wearing the same outfit as her. No doubt they worked either in the same place or in the same profession as one another.

The moment that the two were sat comfortably in their respective chairs the two aurors left leaving the new deputy headmistress alone with her students parents. Minerva took a seat across from them, smoothing down the front of her robes before looking up to address them.

"I am Minerva McGonagall the temporary headmistress of the school. I don't know how much you were told about your daughter's situation?"

"They only told us that she was very poorly." Hermione's mother chocked out, her voice high pitched from her attempts not to cry. Her husband took her hand into his larger one and squeezed it gently to provide some comfort. He looked solemn; his head bent enough to show the balding patch at his crown.

"She has been forced by one of the other students to take a lethally high dose of a potion. But luckily Madam Pomfrey our healer and Severus Snape our potions master managed to get to her in time. She is currently in the schools hospital wing."

"I hope that this student has been caught, because God help them if I find them. No-one hurts my baby girl and gets away with it." Hermione's father growled out.

"We are searching the school for him at the moment, rest assured that we will find him and that he isn't going to get away with this. Now I'm to take you to the hospital wing to see her and I sure that Madame Pomfrey will be able to answer any questions that you might have for her."

* * *

><p>In the great hall, everyone was restless. The long benches and tables that they had eaten their dinner at had been cleared away and they had been provided with cushions, chairs blankets and games to play in order to pass the time. Despite this the mood was very serious, not too long ago Professor Flitwick had come into the hall saying that they all needed to stay in here as something very serious was going on.<p>

For those that had been here three years ago when Sirius Black had been on the run and they had had to stay the night here because he had been thought to be in the school it was very worrying. Of course now they knew that they hadn't been in any danger then, Black had been pardoned after his death at the Ministry of magic, last summer. Still for the teachers to go to such lengths was very unusual and disquieting, normally they would have all been sent up t their dorms and told to stay there if something was going on.

After enough badgering from the students that they should at least know what it was that they were in danger from or being kept away from, professor Flitwick told them. Apparently one of the students had been poisoned by another of them.

People had been upset by that, who could poison someone that they saw on a day to day basis? It was obvious then that whoever had done the poisoning was hiding somewhere in the school and they were trying to find them.

They were all told to stay in their house groups until a full register had been taken in order to make sure that everyone was here. Obviously the two people involved wouldn't be here and after realizing this, the rumour mill started its work.

The doors had opened briefly and two Hufflepuffs came through, both bright red in the face, escorted by one of the aurors. She marched them up to the staff table and handed them ver to Professor Sinistra after talking to her for a few moments.

Professor Rowan was the teacher that came to do the register for Gryffindor house, he started with the first years and made his way up through the years until he got to the sixth year and it came apparent that Hermione and Ron were missing just like they had been all day and people were shocked that the Professor hadn't even called out their names, as if he knew that they wouldn't be there. Then that meant that... and the whole place erupted in shock once more.

Harry looked with wide eyes at the twins who were staring at each other slack jawed. Their brother was either poisoned, or a poisoner. Sure he could be a nasty piece of work at times and had been pretty despicable this year but to do something like this was almost unbelievable. It was the only choice they had because it was even more unbelievable that Hermione would poison him. Though they didn't get on with Ron he was still their brother and it was something that they were really struggling to get their heads around.

Ginny was stood not very far away from them and she seemed to have reached the same conclusion that they had. She glanced over at her older brothers, a sad look on her face, it was as if she was deciding whether or not to come over to them or not. In the end she waved half heartedly at them before turning back to talk to her friends.

Dean and Seamus took the elbows of the twins and guided them over to the very back corner of the room, whilst Neville went off to find Luna. Harry picked up their bags and dragged them after him as they were too heavy to lift. It scared him quite a bit that one of his former friends had the capacity to poison the other. They had spent so much time together over the years and been through so much. He still couldn't come to terms with the way that they had suddenly decided to shun him.

Gripping the bag straps tightly he sighed before hefting them up onto a low table. Sitting on the brown leather couch, Fred and George were holding hands and looking more than a little shell shocked by everything.

"There's nothing that we can do about it." Dean whispered leaning heavily on the arm of the couch, one hand in his trouser pocket and the other rubbing his shoulder. Harry nodded, rifling through his own bag in search of something to do. Under his textbooks and a couple of spare rolls of parchment he found his class book from creature studies class.

"Why don't we do these whilst we're waiting? I'm sure I saw some coloured pencils and paint over there." He asked, turning the pages to see how many pages they were going to have to fill in for their homework. Everyone nodded and started pulling out their own workbooks, a quill and some ink and laying them down on the table, once they had removed the bags from it.

Harry made his way over to another low table further into the room where there were various craft items, and picked up a few paintbrushes some paint, water in a cup and a box full of colouring pencils. On the way back to the group he met up with Neville and Luna who were finally making their way over.

"Neville told me that it's Hermione and Ron." Luna stated in her breathy way, tucking an errant lock of hair behind her ear and adjusting her headband, which seemed to be mainly made out of bacon. Harry decided that it was probably for the best if he didn't ask about it.

"It seems like it, they were the only ones missing from the Gryffindor register and Professor Rowan didn't even call out their names or ask where they were." Harry replied, readjusting his hold on the mountain of supplies that he had brought with him.

"What is all that for?" Neville asked moving closer to him and taking some of the paint bottles off the tower. For a moment Harry forgot how to speak, he could feel his heart hammering away in his chest. It seemed so loud to him that it was impossible that Neville couldn't hear it and that thought made him blush. This feeling he got around his friend, he had no idea what it was, a squirmy feeling in his stomach not a bad squirmy but a good one. It wasn't something that he felt around other people and Harry had begun to believe that it must be because they were such good friends and because they had so much in common.

Luna was looking from him to Neville with a weird smile on her face. Catching her doing it, he blushed realising that he had yet to reply to the question.

"Well I thought that we should use what time we have in order to do that homework that Professor Rowan gave us and that Luna might want to draw or paint or something." Harry finally spat out, he cursed himself for the fact that his voice came out really weirdly. Considering that he was with his friends, he felt this strange need to act cool and not make an idiot out of himself.

"Are you alright Harry?" Neville asked a look of concern on his face, his head tilted to one side and his hands loosening and tightening around the paint bottles in them rhythmically.

"I'm fine." He replied quickly cringing slightly at how quickly he had replied and at the look that Neville was giving him. It wasn't angry it was more disappointed than anything else and it made Harry hurt a little inside. He wished that he felt more comfortable talking about certain things with his friends, but he was used to dealing with things on his own.

Eventually they made it back over to the others, who had started to fill out the questionnaires inside their books.

"Hey Harry Neville you should really look at some of these questions. There's your basic how old are you what do you look like how much do you weigh kind of things in here but also 'which do you like more being outside or being inside?'." Fred said looking up from his work at their arrival.

The two of them took up an empty space on the floor and opened their books, Luna taking charge of the craft stuff and starting her own thing. When Harry reached half way down the page and had filled in the question on what his weight and height were, the box turned red and lengthened. In the extra space, text started to roll out and eventually filled the entire space. It basically told him something that he already knew which was that he was underweight and that if he wasn't already receiving treatment for it he should go see Madame Pomfrey.

It was he supposed something that could be very useful if you didn't know what was healthy and what wasn't, but it reminded him of the fact that he was supposed to be meeting with Iain around now. It was supposed to be their first proper meeting where he had to answer a lot of yes or no questions. Iain had said that it would take some time and that even though it was boring it would help him to find out where he had problems.

In no time at all they had all filled out their questionnaires and were debating on how they were going to decorate the covers of their books. Seamus said that he was going to paint his green and then put on little golden shamrocks which was something that they were expecting being as full of Irish pride as he was. Fred and George were both planning to paint theirs with violent orange, red and purple stripes which seemed to suit them, but sounded like it would burn out people's retinas. Dean had already started sketching something and wouldn't tell them what it was that he was going to do.

"Wait and see. It's a surprise!" That was all that he would say, a sly smile creeping across his face. Neville was in the process of painting what looked like a rainbow and Luna was covered in glitter from her fingertips up to her elbows. Harry smiled, despite the worry that he felt about what was going on outside of the great hall doors and really about his future, he felt safe here with his friends. The atmosphere reminded him strongly of art class in his primary school.

**A/n: Hello everyone yes, i am still alive and kicking! Just want you to know that i haven't forgotten about you or the story. Hope that you enjoyed the chapter look forward to some Harry Neville fluffy awkwardness in the next chapter. Thank you as well to everyone who has reviewed, favourited, put this story on alert and offered me inspiration for creatures for Ron.**

**Until we meet again**

**...raven...**

**P.s. The next chapter wont take anywhere near as long to be published. **


	43. Chapter 43

Chapter 43

Hermione's parents were obviously amazed at the portraits and moving staircases, as anyone that entered the school was, but it was tempered by their worry for their daughter. Minerva had guided them up to the Hospital wing and had left them in the capable hands of Madame Pomfrey and in that time neither of them had said a single word. Then she made her way down to the Great Hall in order to take control of the situation as best she could.

Alan Granger and his wife Susan had been terrified at the appearance of two men dressed in red robes at their door when they had been in the middle of their lunch. The couple ran a dentistry practice in a small town in Herefordshire and lived next door to it. Today they had decided to eat upstairs rather than in the practice as neither of them had any patients this afternoon. Just as soon as they had sat down, the knock on their door had come, which in of itself had been strange as they had a door bell and most people pressed that rather than knocked.

Alan had gone to the door and had been faced with the strangers who had introduced themselves as muggle liaison officers from the auror department. Of course he had demanded to see some form of identification; after all you didn't let just any stranger in your house. His daughter had told him about Aurors and how they were basically the police of the magical world. The only reason that he could think of why they were here had to be something to do with his daughter and he sincerely hoped it wasn't what he was thinking it was. The normal police only showed up at your door if someone was dead, had been in an accident or they were in serious trouble.

Their solemn faces weren't helping to make him feel any calmer. But in the end both produced a piece of parchment with their faces on it and their names ,rank and division and that was enough to convince him to let them into the house and shut the door behind them. His wife offered them a seat on the couch but they refused to take it.

"I'm sorry to tell you, but we have some bad news about your daughter." The younger of the two stated calmly looking at the two of them intently. Alan nodded not trusting his voice at this crucial point in time. He looked over to his wife and they locked eyes for a brief moment before returning to gaze at their bearers of bad news. "Hermione is very ill and the headmistress of Hogwarts has asked that you come up to the school to be with her."

In one way he was relieved that his baby girl was still alive, after all it was every parent's worst nightmare to get a knock on the door from the police to say that your child was dead but on the other hand he felt even more worried. She was really ill, ill enough that they had been called up to the school to see her. That was not something that had ever happened before.

"Headmistress, don't you mean Headmaster?" Susan asked, barely keeping control over herself. Alan moved closer to her rubbing one of his hands up and down her back soothingly and at that she lost it and began to sob. The sound broke his heart even more than it had been before during their twenty odd years together he had done his best to ensure that she never ever cried again. Yet here they were.

"The previous headmaster left his post a few weeks ago I believe and his post is being temporarily filled by Minerva Mc Gonnagol the deputy head teacher and the head of your daughter's house." The older of the two stated, offering his wife a handkerchief the lacy type that little old ladies carried in their handbags or tucked up their sleeves. "We'll take you there through the floo network, Daniel here will connect the fireplace that you have over there to it and we'll be there in two shakes of a lamb's tail."

The floo network was something else that his daughter had talked about. It was a way of travelling through fire and chimneys or something like that safely with the use of some magic powder. It sounded rather uncomfortable to him but at least it would be quick and wouldn't involve him driving for hours up into Scotland, out of his mind with worry.

The connecting process didn't take too long and in that time Susan had gathered together some basics for them and phoned their secretary to cancel their clinics for the next week. After all there was no way of knowing how long they would be away for and especially not until they had actually gotten there.

After some instruction of what to do the two Aurors went first and the two of them threw into the fire the handful of floo powder that they had been given before shouting the destination. Both of them getting into the fireplace had been awkward due to the cramped space, but even more so because of the fact that his brain was telling him that they were going to be burnt by the fire. The sensation was not one that he would like to experience again the spinning reminded him of a fair ride that he had been on as a child. It wasn't long before he felt Susan's hand being ripped out of his own by the spinning and he closed his eyes to avoid the nausea that had been building up due to the swirling fireplace openings.

It seemed like the trip would never end.

The teams of aurors were sweeping the school as quickly and thoroughly as they could in order you find the person believed to have poisoned one of the sixth year Gryffindor girls with a concentrated dose of amortelia. Apparently, according to the schools matron and potions professor this drugging had gone on for some time. When they found him Ronald Weasley was going to have some questions to answer, such as how he had managed to get his hands on a grade A illegal substance. So far they had ascertained that the first five floors had been completely empty apart from a particularly amorous couple in a broom closet that had been sent on their way down to the main hall. This floor was much harder to search as there were a larger number of classrooms many of which hadn't been used regularly for hundreds of years. The magical signature of the castle itself was sewing with their tracing charms and made manual searching also necessary. Peeves, was also not helping them out, throwing chalk at them when they had disturbed him in a storage cupboard. Anthony Goldstein was leading his patrol which was using a spell designed to light up areas where there were life signs, it had been what had alerted them to the couple in the cupboard earlier. It was showing a glow at the end of the corridor but that had already been checked out and found to be from the DADA classroom where Professor Fulbright Crankshaw kept the dark creatures the third years were taught about. The golden glow had also appeared on the ceilings, indicating that it was on a higher floor. It took them till they reached the seventh floor until it changed its direction. The light was now positioned on a bare stretch of wall directly opposite a rather disturbing tapestry of some trolls wearing tutus which Auror Goldstein would rather have forgotten about the statue of Ulric the oddball was also here but there didn't seem to be anything else. The other teams were following behind them so Gareth decided that it would probably be best if he waited for some back up to deal with this. Knowing the castle as all of them did, there was probably some sort of secret passageway but none of them now how to access it. The teams following them didn't take long to catch up and the situation was explained in less than five minutes.

"So that's how it is it?" Nymphadora Tonks, 'Tonks' asked leaning against the wall with a smirk on her face. Garth turned to look at her having been consulting with one of the older members of the squad what the likelihood that it was just rats in the walls.

"You now this place?" He countered somewhat incredulously as none of the others even recalled something similar.

"Of course, it's where the DA used for their training!" Tonks smiled and started pacing from one side of the wall to the other though on her second go she tripped over her own feet and collided with the base of the statue. She swore and then started muttering to herself about how she was going to have to start all over again. Most people had heard the story of the DA or Defence Association (there had been rumours that it stood for Dumbledore's Army, but the Quibbler had recently quashed them). It seemed that they had chosen a location that ever Moody might have been proud of; unfortunately they had been betrayed from within. On Tonks' third walk along the wall or her fifth, a door suddenly appeared in the wall and she pulled it open. The inside of the room from what they could see was filled with piles and piles of armour, broken furniture, and potion bottles containing very dubiously coloured fluids. It seemed to go on and on into the distance and paths had been made through the stuff. "Are you sure that he's in here"

"As sure as I'll ever be about anything." They ensured that they followed the correct procedure for entering an unknown space such as this. Firstly they called out to Ronald Weasley and asked him to surrender himself but the only response that they were met with was silence. Then they split up into their assigned groups of three to search the area using the life signs spell. The place was like a maze and even with the spell it was going to take them sometime to find him and that was if he wasn't moving around. Gareth would have liked to have the clutter moved to the edges of the room but he couldn't risk what might happen to the potions. There was no way of knowing how long ago they had been made what they were or how stable they were. So they were stuck with doing things the hard way.

People in the hall were starting to get annoyed about the length of time that they had been stuck in there. Even though they had been given plenty of activities to do the younger years were starting to become tired and the older years were bemoaning the loss of their lesson/ study time. After all it only meant that they would have to do more work later.

Harry was nearly finished decorating his book for creature study class and it was turning into something that he was quite proud of. Drawing was something that he liked doing and for the moment it was taking his mind off the fact that he was supposed to be meeting with Iain at this very moment. He hoped that the healer wouldn't be too annoyed with him. He was still struggling to comprehend everything that had happened in the last couple of weeks. As he was sat there he could feel a painful feeling on his back and he ran his hand over his shoulder blades only to jerk it back quickly with a cry. He nearly choked himself trying to take off his tie quickly causing his friends to turn around from their conversations quickly to stare at him. The red and gold tie was eventually successfully removed and thrown to one side and he could feel the pain lessening as the pressure on his wings (for now he remembered that was what it was). When the shirt was off, he could feel them sliding out from wherever it was that they were when they were withdrawn, the process was slightly uncomfortable. When Harry finally looked up, Neville was blushing from ear to ear and everyone else was laughing.

"Err thank you." Harry stuttered somewhat mystified he didn't really know why Neville had decided to fling a blanket over him. Neville caught his questioning look.

"It's so you're not all exposed and..." He said taking his seat once again nearly standing on his newly painted boo which was still wet. Harry himself blushed a little at that, he had forgotten where he was for a while. He was sitting shirtless in the great hall with his wings out.

"Why did they come out though, they've been in for a really long time without any problems?" Harry asked drawing them blanket more tightly about himself.

"Maybe that's why!" Luna stated in her usual dreamy manner, looking up from her picture with purple paint streaked across her forehead from when she had wiped the sweat from it with her hand. "They've been in there too long. You've not used them and the muscle will be atrophying. "

"You should use them." That had come from the twins.

The door opened suddenly starting everyone and a deadly silence filled the room. Kingsley Shacklebolt was stood in the space where the door had been seconds before. The wood made a reverberating banging noise as it bounced back off the stone wall. He was dressed in the red uniform that all aurors wore and with his tall stature and grim expression there was only one thing that could be said about him and that was that he surely knew how to make an entrance. People also began to worry if the head of the Auror division had been called out what did that mean the situation was lie. Had Ron Weasley somehow gotten out of the school and was on the run? Was he fighting it out with the Aurors? Kingsley walked straight through the groups of students up to the staff table. The Weasley twins who had been rather quiet since the news had been broken were sat together on the floor hands clasped tightly together. It must be hard for them to know that even though they didn't get on well with their brother that he was capable of doing something so terrible and that he was in serious trouble. Ginny was paler than usual so pale that she looked in danger of fainting at any moment. No-one knew what to say to any of them. Obviously Ron was innocent until proven guilty but he had run away he had left Hermione lying there and hadn't gotten her any help. She probably could have died! That was practically murder if you thought about it.

The teachers all seemed to be listening to Kingsley closely though at this distance it was impossible to make out what it was or their expressions. A ripple of nervousness passed through them all, it was as if the entire school was holding its breath waiting for the proverbial axe to all. Eventually Kingsley turned away from them and marked out through the double doors. Professor Mc Gonnagol stood up from the table and walked to the front of the dais where the lectern was. It was shaped like a golden phoenix and Harry thought that there must be some sort of noise amplifying spell on it.

"I want you to know that Ronald Weasley has been arrested by the Aurors or using an illegal potion on Hermione Granger that has made her need to be hospitalised."

Fred and George looked even paler than they had previously. The knowledge that their younger brother had been arrested made the whole situation even more real to them. Harry didn't even know what to feel. In a way he was glad because it meant that he wouldn't have to deal with Ron anymore, but Ron had also been his friend. At least Harry had considered him to be a friend it seemed though that that sentiment hadn't been returned by the other boy.

"If anyone has any information that they would like to tell us. Don't hesitate to do so! Lessons will be resuming in ten minutes so please gather your things and get ready."

Harry parted from his friends at the doors of the great hall and made his way up the many flights of stairs to the infirmary on his own. It gave him a lot of time to think about what was going to happen. Iain had explained to him a little of what was going to happen but that didn't make him feel any better about the situation. Apparently he was going to be asked a lot of questions and some of them would be very personal some of them would be really peculiar. That was because the test was used on everyone to try and pick up problems. Despite the fact that this felt somewhat daunting, Harry felt like he could trust Iain.

That was something pretty big considering the fact that he found it very hard to trust anyone and that he hardly knew the man. Maybe it was like the trust he had in Madame Pomfrey neither of them had lied to him before and had always done their best to make him better. Walking with his wings out was very uncomfortable. At first everyone had been staring at him and he had felt really off balance. It wasn't that they weighed a lot it was more that he was very conscious of their presence. From what he had read it would be really painful to catch them on anything. They extended at their highest point to just above his head and at their lowest above his knees. It was only now that he really had a chance to look at them. Before he had either been too freaked out by the situation or feeling numb as the shock had set in. It was hard to go from thinking that you were completely human and that all you had o worry about on your seventeenth birthday was maybe getting an increase in powers. But here he was with wings and the ability to lay eggs. The thought of which still terrified him when he gave himself the chance t think about it.

When he arrived at the Hospital Wing a large area to the left was screened off and he could hear people bustling around behind it. Someone on his right coughed and harry almost jumped out of his skin right there. It was one of the Aurors or to put it correctly a pair of Aurors. They were obviously here to protect Hermione and to stop people coming in to gawp at her probably.

"I've got an appointment!" He squeaked out at their questioning glances wringing his hands together.

"Harry, Professor Snape will take you to the room you'll have your appointment in." Madame Pomfrey's voice called from behind the screen. The two Aurors backed away and a few moments later Professor Snape emerged and gestured for Harry to follow him. He looked worried and somewhat ruffled and Harry followed after him cautiously. They walked down the corridor that led to the bathrooms, passing two large windows through which the weak autumn light was filtering through. Eventually they turned a corner and came to an area with various chairs and some potted plants.

**An/ See i told you that this chapter wouldn't take as long as the last one, i seem to have broken through the writers block that i had. :)**

Youko's Befuddled Fox: Thank you i hope that you enjoyed this chapter.

TLJ110166: Don't worry everyone will get their comeuppance eventually.

Jennypea: I'm sorry that you believe that you can't read my story because of a mere wrong spelling, that has slipped through. I'm pretty sure that I've spelled Minerva's second name differently every time that I've written it but... Yes I have read the books that you very much there is no need to write so nastily, when you could have just pointed out the spelling mistake.

Timberstar: It's nice to hear from you again as well. I'm glad that you liked the bit with Neville and Harry in the last chapter, I hope you enjoyed this one as well it's longer than the last one as well. Hope that you have a nice day.


	44. Chapter 44

_A/n: Hello everyone i hope that your weekend was nice. I hope that you enjoy the chapter and forgive me for my poor skill at writing dialogue. At least this is a new chapter and it has fluff in it for you as well. ^^ _

Chapter 44

Harry sat there looking at a rather boring tapestry of three women picking flowers that was hung on the far wall. Although the style that it was created in looked medieval the fabric looked to be new, as there had been no fading in its colours. But this was to be expected, after all there were many things that magic could do.

The chair that he was sat on was comfortable and the potted Flutterby bush on a glass table to his left was fluttering its purple and blue petals gently causing the perfume to waft its way around the room. Despite such tranquil surroundings Harry could still feel himself breaking out in a cold sweat. It was so uncomfortable to be sitting here without a shirt on, he hoped that he wouldn't have to have his appointment with Iain like this. The blanket was still wrapped as best as he could get it around his torso. The waiting area wasn't cold, but he had broken out in Goosebumps all the way down his arms.

The area where his wings joined onto his back was sore, and he couldn't bring himself to touch it. Harry concentrated his thoughts into getting his wings to withdraw back into wherever it was that they went. In the beginning it seemed that nothing was happening, but millimeter by millimeter they slid backwards with a strange tickling sensation. It took three or four minutes before they were all the way in and Harry was able to put his shirt back on. Panting a little at all the effort that it had taken, the teenager sat back in the chair and waited for Iain to come.

Luckily he wasn't waiting long before Iain made his appearance. He was wearing his official robes and had his children's tabard folded over one of his arms. On the tabard there were the smiling faces of cartoon animals, which were just a little disturbing. Just like anything or anyone that looked overly happy. The older man looked a little harried, but that was to be expected due to the events that had happened today and the fact that they were late for their appointment.

"It's just through here." Iain stated, a little out of breath, opening a door that Harry hadn't even noticed before. It was exactly the same colour as the walls on either side of it. Harry stood a little hesitantly at the entrance to the room popping his head in first in order to scout it out. There was a desk in one corner some filing cabinets various comfy looking chairs a whiteboard and a box filled with various toys. He looked at it warily before sitting down in the chair nearest the door. Iain followed him in and closed the door behind him. The sound of the door closing felt ominous.

"I'm sorry that our appointment was pushed back because of events in school. It has obviously given you more time to think about it."Harry nodded twisting his fingers in his lap. It was true that the extra time had given him more chance to panic about what was to come. Fortunately he hadn't had a full blown panic attack, like he had had in the infirmary after his creature inheritance. But the Gryffindor thought that that was most likely due to the healer explaining to him what was going to happen in their session. "Let's get this over and done with as soon as possible. Luckily Madame Pomfrey has filled in a lot of the sections for us in advance."

He nodded, mainly because Iain was looking at him and there was this massively uncomfortable silence hanging in the air between them. It felt like the older man's eyes were boring into him, it greatly resembled the feeling that he had around Professor Snape. Legimency was the first thought that popped into his head, but Harry pushed it away. Iain had told him before that Mind Healers weren't allowed to use legimency except in the case of an emergency and he trusted him. How wise that was he couldn't really say at the moment.

Iain opened the top drawer of one of the filing cabinets. It made a dull clunking noise as the metal of the drawer banged off of the front of the cabinet. He then pulled out the thickest wad of paper that Harry had ever seen. At least as thick as one of the largest essays that he had seen Hermione do. When the healer turned round he caught the look that Harry was giving him he laughed. "Don't worry were not going through the whole thing."

He sighed n relief if they had had to do the whole thing it would have taken them hours and hours he would have been lucky to get out of the room before tomorrow morning.

"Right here we go!" It was said so energetically Harry couldn't help but smile a little at it. "Have you ever smoked?"

"No I don't want lung cancer."

"Do you drink?"

"I've never really seen the point in it really."

"Have you ever taken any illegal drugs?"

"No I'd be the person that dies the first time." And so the questions went on and on. In the beginning it seemed that the questions would be easy to answer, but as time went on, he was proved wrong.

"Have you ever thought about harming yourself?" Here he didn't know what to say and the silence between them just kept drawing out as Iain sat their looking at him. His skin started to crawl and it became harder and harder to say the words that were in his mouth. "Would you lie to write it down it might be easier that way?" Iain handed him a piece of paper and a self inking quill.

His hands shock as he took it the knowledge that once the words were out there was no way that he could take them back. The quill left a big ink blotch were it had been resting on the paper as he tried to compose himself. Eventually he managed to get the words down and he'd handed the paper over to Iain reluctantly. He had expected the revelation that he had divulges to cause a stir, but Iain didn't react in the way that he had expected him to. He just nodded and wrote something in the book of questions. Harry didn't know how to feel. Part of him felt relieved that there hadn't been a big fuss made out of it, but another part was feeling that something that was so private to him deserved a bit more of a one.

"Where did you bite yourself?"

"On the hand like this." And he demonstrated biting the fleshy part of his right hand where his thumb joined to his wrist.

"Do you still do it?"

"…Yes." He whispered curling into himself a little more, bringing his feet up onto the chair and wrapping his arms around them.

"Don't worry too much Harry. I'm not suddenly going to tell you to stop it. Biting yourself is a coping strategy that you have, that helps you to deal with things. Hopefully when we meet I can teach you more positive ways of coping and eventually you won't want to anymore. Do you know what emotions you were feeling at the time?"

"Sad…angry."

There was a few minutes on silence as Iain added more to what he had previously written before trying to find the start of the next questions. His chest was feeling a little tight and his heart was pounding uncomfortably fast within it. Hopefully this wasn't going to take much longer.

"These questions may seem a little weird to you, but I'd like for you to answer them." Harry nodded bracing himself for whatever it was going to be asked. At this point he felt rather shaken and couldn't imagine what else there was to be asked."Apart from the obvious do you ever feel like someone or something is out to get you?"

"Well Voldermort and the Death Eaters were and to some extent still are, but apart from that that no."

"Have you ever heard a noise or a sound that no one else could?"

"Yes.."Harry replied. The healer seemed to be a little shocked at this, his eyebrows rising and his eyes opening wider before his face became serious.

"But it turned out to be a basilisk so in the end it wasn't that big of a deal!" A sudden coughing sound made him look up from his hands to see the healer slightly red in the face.

"You don't consider a basilisk to be a big deal?"

"No not really considering everything that has happened." There was silence again whilst Iain wrote something Harry stared at the box full of toys wondering to himself why they were there. It's not like any of the kids in the school were babies that would play with them. The remaining questions passed quickly with Iain asking now and again for him to clarify something or explain it in more detail. Sometimes Harry found that he didn't have the words to explain what he was thinking and the Healer encouraged him to draw it instead. Drawing the answer made him feel that he could organize his thoughts better than before. By the end of the session, his head felt like he had hundreds of dwarves mining for gold in his brain and his knees were unconsciously knocking together.

"One last thing Harry, there is something I need to tell you before you can go off to your next lesson." The healer turned once again putting the paper work back into the exact same drawer that he had taken it out from. An uneasy expression was on his face, when he turned back and he moved his chair closer to Harry. "When you went through your creature inheritance Professor Snape went to see the Faerie Court because the school has to legally inform them if any of the students go through a Faerie inheritance."

"Why?" Harry could feel his heart pounding even harder it felt like something big was going to be revealed to him and he didn't know if he could cope with it. Hopefully whatever it was wouldn't be something bad enough bad things had gone on this year already.

"It's to do with your safety mainly. Because of your situation with your Aunt and Uncle the queen decided to petition the Ministry of Magic for your guardianship to change. They made their decision last week. This means that you won't have to live with your relatives anymore."

This was certainly something big. It was life changing,. He didn't know what to feel like. It was amazing to him that a group of strangers wanted him to be part of their group, part of their family. There being other Faeries out there, was something that he hadn't really thought about before, though it made sense that there were. "The court has sent a couple to the school to help guide you through the inheritance and answer any questions that you might have about being a Faerie."

Harry was torn between feeling amazed that two people had come all the way from their home, wherever that was to be here at the school and worried. On one hand he would finally be able to as the questions that he had wanted answering (the books that he had been given seemed to give answers that conflicted with each other) and on the other he didn't know whether they would get on or not.

What age were they? Had they been forced to do this by the queen or had they wanted to do it? To what extent was his guardianship? This information would take some time to digest and more and more questions kept popping into his head.

* * *

><p>The Auror department was in uproar. Today was supposed to be the day that they were to review all of the testimonies that had been given by the children at Hogwarts, but something had happened up at the school. It was unusual for them to be called up to Hogwarts to deal with something especially something that required so many people to go. Those who were left gossiped among themselves whilst they filled in reports examined evidence and stole biscuits from the office communal biscuit tin.<p>

After an hour or two the teams began filtering back into the office with the news that one of the students had been poisoned by another one. Luckily she hadn't died, though apparently it had been a close call. If it hadn't have been for Madame Pomfrey and Severus Snape, it wasn't worth thinking about what could have happened to her. The teams had captured the main suspect who was her boyfriend and he was being questioned under Veritasium as they spoke. It surely had livened things up in the department.

Until now they had been working solely on the Albus Dumbledore case and it was tiring trying to work out how much of his life was real and how much was a lie. They had been interviewing people that had known him well over the years and many of them had been found to be under various charms and spells. The most serious of all being a number of individuals who had had their memories altered via Obliviate. It was going to take some time to recover the memories that had been tampered with.

Albus' brother Aberforth had been more than happy to provide them with what information he could. What he had told them had been a revelation for some. From the fact that his beliefs had been so different as a teenager from the ones he apparently held now to who he had been in a relationship with in the past. Aberforth had stated when they interviewed him, "its bout time someone reined him in." and had gone on to talk about their sister and her tragic early death.

Once everyone had returned, the reports had been written and they had all been debriefed by Rufus Scrimgeour they began work on what they had origionally planned to do today. The testimonies that the children had provided had been written on pieces of paper. They had only expected a few of the students to come forward with information bt the sheer amount of responses was shocking. By the look of it the vast majority of the students had sent something on to them. There seemed to be more response from the Slytherins than any of the other houses and a disproportionate number from those with creature inheritances.

The more they read of the transcriptions the bigger the revelations became. Reading them had upset a number of the members of staff. It was through these complaints that they found out what exactly had been going on in the school over the years. The former headmaster had been in a position of trust and responsible for the lives of so many young people over the years.

There were accusations of him encouraging bullying among the students treating the houses very differently from one another refusing to let a seventh year Hufflepuff student go home when her grandfather was deathly ill or to go to his funeral. The list of problems went on and on not to mention the Harry Potter incident. There was also the fact that they hadn't been informed of at least twelve incidents where the lives of students had been put in danger and that was terrifying. How many other children had been put at risk or even harmed during the former headmaster's tenure at the school.

Sure they, the vast majority of the department having attended the school themselves had noticed things during their time there, but time and distance had made them forget.

* * *

><p>Harry walked to his next class in somewhat of a daze. It was a long way down to the Herbology greenhouses and that gave him plenty of time to think about the last hour and a half. To some degree it was hard to believe what was going to happen. He had spent the vast majority of his childhood surrounded by people that despised him.<p>

At times it felt like there were gaps in his memories growing up. Hearing the list of injuries that he had sustained whilst living with the Dursleys it wouldn't surprise him, if his brain hadn't stepped in to hide things from him, that it thought were too much for then both to handle.

Hearing that two total strangers had come to teach him things, was partly a relief in that he would be able to ask them for advice and information that wasn't available elsewhere but they were still strangers and that set him somewhat on edge. There wasn't much point in worrying about it though at least until tomorrow. He just had to get through this last lesson and dinner before he could go back to the dorm and have to process this properly.

The lights inside of the greenhouses helped guide him through the dark grounds. Although Halloween had already passed and with it the longest night, it was still dark enough now that it was difficult to make out much and he couldn't find the mental energy to perform a lumos spell.

Harry's back felt a little sore from where his wings had retreated. How long they would stay there he didn't now but he hoped that they would last at least till the end of the lesson. There was no way that he was spending it topless and he had left the blanket that Neville had given him in the hospital wing. As he got closer he was able to see that there wasn't anybody waiting outside of greenhouse ten the one that they were currently working in. It was obvious then that he was late and he was grateful to Iain who had given him a note explaining where he had been. The greenhouse was filled with various dangerous and difficult to grow plants, because they were in their Newt years the plants were hard to deal with. As he walked through the door he could hear the sound of the other students potting up snarling marigolds.

Neville was at the farthest end and seemed to be the only one without a partner. Professor Sprout took the note form him smiled and shooed him off to start potting up his own marigolds. Neville jumped when he tapped him on the shoulder and dropped the terracotta pot that he was holding and it smashed on the floor.

"Reparo." Harry fixed the pot placing it back on the bench tenderly.

"Don't do that Harry you nearly scared the life out of me!" Neville exclaimed holding a hand to his chest spreading soil across his jumper. Harry smiled elbowing him once again as put on his dragonhide gloves. It was important if he didn't want to lose a finger to one of the plants. They worked together in silence for a few minutes before Neville started up the conversation again.

"I see you managed to get your wings to go back in." Said Neville delicately removing the snarling marigold from its pot. If you pulled too hard the plant snapped from the roots and would die plus Professor Sprout would kill you the plants were her babies.

"Yeah." Sighed Harry, pulling his finger as gently as possible from one of the blooms of his own plant. "I don't know how much longer I'll be able to do it for though."

"Why not just walk around with them out?"

"I would be half naked!"

"Surely something could be made or something, in any case you can do it at the dorm, it not like you have anything that we haven't seen before." They turned to look at each other and their eyes met, before the pair blushed at exactly the same time. Their faces were so red that they looked like a pair of tomatoes.

* * *

><p><em>An: Here are my responses to your reviews._

**Stormshadow13**: I'm glad that you like the story! Ah someone like me who loves rare pairs. :) hint hint nudge nudge. I think it's pretty obvious now who is going to end up together.

Don't worry too much about Hermione, i wont make her suffer, well much more anyway.

I think that i know what i'm going to do with Ron now but you'll have to wait to find out what that is.

.yourself: Here is the update that you wanted so much i hope that you enjoyed it.

**Dragon's Flame of Life**: I'm glad that you like the story. Well Mariposa is influenced by a lot of different things. But the biggest one would be Starlight Massacre's Rise of the Drakens, which made me believe that it was possible to write a good creature fic. Her work is amazing though and i don't think this even holds a candle to it. Other influences are a book that i was reading on butterflies and the sheer amount of Korean dramas that I've been watching lately.

**Timberstar**: Yes it is lucky that she knew about it otherwise Ron would probably be in there for ages before he was ever found. Don't worry he will get what's coming to him in the end just like Dumbledore will. Ah tomato Harry and Neville i hope that you like their reappearance in this chapter as well.

**twilightreaderaddict**: Yeah the twins and Ginny are finding it hard to believe that their brother could be capable of such a thing. Fluffiness is an amazing thing.


	45. Chapter 45

**Chapter 45**

Harry had gone up to the sixth year dorm much earlier than he would usually without saying a word. Neville and the others were worried, normally the whole gang hung out, outside the Gryffindor dorm so that they could be with Luna. There was no way that they would leave her out in order to sit somewhere more comfortable.

Now that Ron wasn't here it seemed that things had gotten a little better than before, but none of them put faith in chance. Sure there wasn't as much bullying as there had been before, but there was still the memory of what had happened before.

Harry had been pale and quiet all day, at first they had thought that it was waiting to meet with his mind healer, but it seemed worse now that it was over. Obviously what ever they had done together was praying on Harry's mind. Some of this silence probably also had to do with Ron and Hermione. A situation they were all concerned about.

So Neville had decided to go up to the dorm in order to make sure that Harry was actually okay. It didn't take long as they had all met in an empty classroom halfway between the Ravenclaw and Gryffindor towers. A place they often used as it was convenient for everyone getting back to their respective dorms.

The main dorm room was very busy because it was still so early. Several tiny first years were trying to play wizards chess, and a large group of third years playing exploding snap. Someone had brought out the old radio and was blaring out 'The weird sisters' in one of the corners. There was a scream of pain and annoyance as someone got their eyebrows singed off by their exploding deck.

It took a few minutes for Neville to weave his way through all of the tables and chairs, but eventually he made his way up the stairs and to their dorm room.

The red curtains to Harry's four poster bed were open something that drew his attention as he almost always closed them. As he drew nearer, Neville blushed. Harry wasn't wearing a shirt. The blue purple scales of his wings iridised in the light of the candles. Hopefully the discomfort of holding them in had been eased. Standing here felt so incredibly wrong and uncomfortable, more uncomfortable, than he had felt in a long time. Neville could feel his heart beat increasing rapidly, thumping away in his chest. For a while now he had realised that his feelings about Harry had changed.

Having a crush on a close friend was beyond terrifying. It could lead to a destroying of that friendship very easily, especially if it wasn't reciprocated. Harry had frankly been through enough, without him having to worry about Neville's interest in him, and that making him uncomfortable.

He sighed picking up the blanket that Harry had kicked off the bed, arranging it as best he could around the smaller boy's wings. It was important to be careful of the small scales on the wings as they were very delicate. Doing that took him much longer than he expected. Realising how creepy/terrifying it would be for Harry to wake up with him standing over him, Neville quickly moved away.

With the help of all the nutrient potions that professor Snape and Madame Pomfrey were making him take and the fact that his appetite was slowly returning to him, Harry had put a little weight on. It made the larger boy happy to see but the way his ribs and spine were still so pronounced was upsetting. How anyone could treat another human being like his Aunt and Uncle had treated Harry was beyond Neville's understanding. How no-one had noticed that treatment was also saddening, but it, no doubt had something to do with their ex-headmaster.

Now that he knew that Harry was safer the Longbottom heir got into his own bed and was soon joining his friend in dream land.

* * *

><p><span>The next day<span>

Dumbledore planned to mobilise his escape plan as quickly as possible. He had originally planned to do it later but things had had to be moved forward with certain news that he had been made aware of. Albus had thought that playing along with the game the ministry seemed inclined to play would be diverting. Unfortunately things seemed to be against his will.

It was disconcerting that things weren't going his way as he had, had his own way for so long with no opposition. Of course he had planned over the years for something like this happening, but he had never thought that he might actually need to put those plans into motion. Obviously that planning was now vitally important.

His family house the one Aberforth refused to even come near was filled with all sorts of escape routes. All pureblood family's had various escape routes planned into their homes. It was something that was sensible to do in the tumultuous centuries that had passed by. Every generation adding their own routes to the already existing ones.

He knew he wouldn't have much time before they would notice his disappearance. If the Aurors were any good at their jobs, he gave it five minutes in all for his escape. Just because he was wearing magic dampening handcuffs and didn't have his wand, didn't mean that he wasn't capable of anything. After all, hadn't it been he who had battled and won Grindelwald all those years before?

Under the kitchen floor and a plethora of protective spells there was a tunnel down to a secret bunker of sorts that he had built in his younger days. It was down there that he had stored as many of the darker artefacts he had collected over the years as possible. It was also where he kept a store of spare wands. None of them worked as well for him as the elder wand, which had been confiscated by the ministry, but they were better than nothing.

After checking that he could not be seen by the Aurors that were guarding him, Albus lifted up the rug covering the hatch. Holding the handle to it in his hand, he felt a slight tingling pass through it. The protective magic was, checking whether or not to let him through or to curse him. After a tense few seconds, he heard the click of the lock.

"Won't be long now, and I'll be out of here and free again." Albus whispered to himself as he lifted up the trapdoor, being careful not to make a sound.

* * *

><p>At the scheduled meeting of the Auror department there was a great deal of discussion regarding their largest case. It was quickly becoming clear that the Albus Dumbledore case was bigger and more complicated than they could have ever imagined from the outset. Instead of this being a rather complex safeguarding and abuse case it was spiralling into something huge. Every step that they took in order to clear up the case, only found them following new leads that pointed to new crimes. And so it was taking up a larger and larger amount of the workforce as time went on.<p>

The evidence that had been collected so far was literally piled all around them in boxes and in crates. There was a cabinet full of glass vials containing memories stood against the stone wall. Some of them had been donated by students of the school (both former and current) and others by people in the wizarding community. One of the largest boxes contained the transcripts of the children's testimonies that they had been collecting over the past few weeks.

They would in the next couple of days be going back up to the school in order to interview everyone that had submitted something. This was to collect more detailed statements and any extra evidence that could be used to support the claims. It had taken what felt like forever to the team tasked with reading through them to get to the bottom of the pile. Apparently going through them all had been upsetting and two members had requested a period of leave. But they were both here to brief the rest of the team as to its contents.

"As we all know operation red stone is top on our list of priorities at the moment." Kingsley Shacklebolt stated addressing the gathered Aurors. "The minister is now asking me for daily updates in regards to this case. He wants us to sort it out quick smart. But I don't want anyone rushing and missing something." At this several people seated towards the back of the room nodded, rushing a case never did any good. This was especially so in a case like this, with a rather famous individual with a high standing in the community. It was vital that this case was investigated correctly.

"It's better to do something once and do it properly!" An experienced Auror shouted from where he was leaning against the wall near the door, his robes slightly askew.

"True…true!" Kingsley agreed before moving on. "This meetings purpose is to brief everyone on the developments in operation red stone, I introduce to you now Angela Featherbroke." A relatively plain middle aged woman stood up carrying one of the evidence boxes. "She is here to talk about the items seized from the Dumbledore ancestral home and the headmaster's offices." Kingsley then sat down and Angela took up his former position.

"We seized a very large number of items from both locations. Due to the sheer amount, not all of them have been fully identified and processed yet. So I can only comment on the ones we have." She placed the box on the table in front of her and people craned their necks to get a better view of the objects that were to come out of it. The room was much fuller than it would normally have been and it was hard for those at the back of the room to get a good view. "All the items have been placed in stasis and fitted with an impervious charm in order to preserve them." Angela stated pulling out three complex metal contraptions and placing them on the table in full view. There were many confused looks from the gathered people. "After consulting with the Department of Mysteries we have ascertained that this is a tracking device of Dumbledore's own making." Someone in the mass of seated Aurors raised a hand missing three of its fingers.

"Do we know who or what they were made to track?" The three fingered Auror asked concernedly.

"It's pretty clear that this one," she pointed to the smallest and most delicate of the three. "was made with the sole purpose of tracking Harry Potter. The device was made approximately a day or two after the murder of his parents. It seems to work through a form of blood magic."

"Well that's something." A junior remarked as she jotted notes down, with a tattered brown owl feathered quill. Dicta-quills were expensive and couldn't cope with dialects, so they were something the Department never used.

"Didn't he argue the hardest that, that branch of magic should be made illegal?" Someone asked in a gravely voice. Obviously someone who had been an Auror long enough to remember the argument in question. It had been a very long time since blood magic had been taken off of the syllabus at Hogwarts.

"So far as we can work out, it has various functions such as warning Albus when the boy's magical core was getting above a preset level, his physical status and who was around him as well as his actual position." Angela explained.

"So there is no way that he can say that he wasn't aware of the lad's home life now, is there?" The same Auror questioned sarcastically, before beginning to talk in a hushed voice to the person to their immediate left.

"One of the other two, this one!" She picked up the middle sized one, covered in little green and black beads. "Tracks Severus Snape, Hogwarts' potions master and the other made several years earlier for an unknown person."

"Severus worked as a double agent and a spy for the light during the latter end of the first war and in the time between Voldermort…" Kingsley explained, to those who were not aware of the full situation. There was a shudder around the room in these not sufficiently battle hardened. "For Merlin's sake get a grip on yourselves he's fucking dead and gone. Stop treating him like a monster under the bed that could come and get you in the night." A grizzled ageing Auror shouted annoyed at the reaction of those who were supposed to be protecting the wizarding world.

"Anyway as I was saying between Voldermort's second rise and his death in the Ministry Atrium fountain. He took up the spying for the light once again."

"We also confiscated a lot of paperwork from both locations. This is the school's log supposed to be kept by the headmaster and this is Albus Dumbledore's own personal account of what he was doing. As you will come to see there are a significant number of discrepancies. From reading them, it seems obvious that he has been taking money out of the schools account and using it for personal gain. We are currently waiting for a response from Gringotts in regards to the two accounts as well as the accounts of various students who seem to have had money withdrawn from them." Angela continued, pulling out two diaries from the bottom of the cardboard box to show to her assembled colleagues.

"That's despicable!"

"It's a betrayal of trust and his position to do something like that." Both exclamations came from different directions and it was impossible to work out who it was that had actually said either of them.

Mrs Featherbroke calmly placed the three complex tracking devices back into the box they had come from along with the two diaries. "There are a number of other important points raised within them and they are written on the parchment in front of you. A full list of all the items that we have seized, has also been provided."

Kingsley Shacklebolt stood up from his chair as Angela returned to her seat.

"Next is the team assigned with reading the statements we were given by the children at the school and those involved with the initial case that brought this to our attention."

* * *

><p>It was half two in the afternoon when the alarm went off. The blaring klaxon disturbed the silence of the small village Albus Dumbledore family home was part of. This was something that they had been warned to look out for. And to be honest, everyone had expected that it would happen. This time it wasn't a drill. Albus Percival Wulferic Brian Dumbledore was making an escape attempt and had so triggered the complex wards around the house and its grounds. A group of Aurors was walking a twisting and turning path down the back lawn.<p>

"He's down here somewhere Sir!" One of them shouted, which was immediately followed, by someone kicking him in the shins.

"Tell the bloody world, why don't you?!" A senior officer scolded with one eye firmly fixed on the tracking spell that they were using. It wouldn't do to lose Dumbledore at all. That would be something that at the very least would get you not thrown out of the department entirely.

The speed of the progress that Dumbledore was making under the ground could only mean that he was using some sort of tunnel. "Get ahead of him and prepare to blast the ground in order collapse the tunnel." He commanded, picking up the pace so that he could overtake the prisoner.

Before long half of the group was standing in a line, directly in the path of the escaped prisoner. The other half, standing behind on the path he had already taken. They too would be using a blasting curse to collapse the tunnel behind Albus so that he couldn't escape back down the way that he had come.

"One, two, three. Bombarda!" For a second nothing happened, before the ground began to give way in the areas targeted. Two female Aurors ran forward and grabbed a firm hold of the wrinkled hands that had poked their way through the loose soil and pulled hard. Others rushed over to help them.

After a few minutes they had a very muddy Albus Dumbledore sat on the ground beside them. It was obvious now that he could no longer be kept under house arrest. He would have to be taken to the Ministry and detained in the cells. His house would have to be searched again for other escape routes and hidden items.

The senior Auror sighed as they prepared to leave; the paperwork that he was going to have to fill out would take hours. His wife wasn't going to be happy. Today was her birthday and they had planned to go out to a fancy restaurant.

**A/n: Long time no see... *coughs awkwardly***


End file.
